6-26-17 J Pod and Others Continued the West Side Shuffle

Monday, June 26th
The day in images:

...and Suttles J-40 was with them too!...and maybe a few others too...

...it was a good day to see the Southern Residents...but they won't stay unless there is enough salmon...and I doubt that at the moment that there is enough to keep them here very long.
...in that case we want them to be gone, gone to where the salmon are, and yes, because we want to see them, we hope that lots of salmon will soon be coming in...

6-25-17 J Pod and Others All Day Long - Part 2

June 25th - Part 2 
...all day the whales went up island, then back down island, up island, and back down...
...it was a stunning day...but how one describes it isn't that easy.
...filled with close passes along the shore line - like they used to do...
.....with family groups tightly together - like the used to do...
......with energetic, playful-looking groups...
.......moving with an electricity that seemed to come from them to us.

When you see the whales doing what they used to do, after having watched them for the last few years in a very different and concerning way, it brought this person hope - hope for the whales.

But in reality it all has to unfold and may it please unfold for them with salmon, salmon, salmon - that is what they need - more than anything.

Here are some images from the day:

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...and it wasn't even noon yet...soon they went back up island...

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...the K14s chose the shore side...

...yes, it was a most extraordinary day, a day we haven't seen like this in a very long time...many possibilities for reasons why, but for now we're just very glad to see the whales getting food to sustain them...may that trend continue...

...and tomorrow?   MORE SALMON PLEASE!

 

6-25-17 J Pod and Others All Day Long -Part 1

Sunday, June 25th - Part 1
...J Pod came down from Tofino...one very faint K Pod call over the Lime Kiln hydrophones in the night had me out the door really, really early...I picked up the whales down island near Salmon Bank...and if you don't know, that is significant because it isn't named Salmon Bank for no reason :)

...I immediately let the Center for Whale Research know and in a while they were on their way...and so were the whales - coming up island...

...the last time J Pod and Onyx had been seen was June 1st...gone out to sea for three weeks just a few days shorter than their last long absence...

...eventually all J Pod, Onyx L-87, and the four K14s came by!  Haven't seen any of the K14s since last October, though K Pod was here in early March...
...they continued up island and so did I...
...it looks like summer is here...lots of behaviors out there from boats and from whales...some of the water craft shifted my focus for a while...

...the whales continued up but it just didn't seem like they were committed to go north...a while later they turned and came back down island...

...the majority of the whales were coming along but were farther offshore...so off to Lime Kiln again...

...knowing the rest of the 'kelp' group was coming and the rest of the 29 whales were on their way...well that's part two...
here's a teaser for that...

...doesn't get much better than that...that is until you realized that not only are they coming back down...you find out later that...part 2...

6-24-17 Greetings From J Pod

...thanks to one or more of the whale watching companies in Tofino...J Pod was encountered twice in the last week!

6-17-17 L Pod Whales On the West Side

Saturday, June 17th

...after seeing the Transients in San Juan Channel while on the Western Prince, we headed over to the L Pod whales who just 'showed up' on the west side...
...this is the first time since last October that some of them have been this far in...I took a few images before getting some video...

...here's a brief clip with the hydrophones...they were quite vocal...

...then on the way back...

Thanks Capt. Dennis and the Western Prince!