3-16-18 San Juan Channel - A Busy Whale Corridor

...catching up - March 12 - 16

...on March 12 the T2Cs were off the southwest side of San Juan Island, not ever coming up as far as Lime Kiln...late in the day the T18s were also off the west side of San Juan Island - BUT they were miles from shore...

...in the middle of the night and early on March 13, Transient calls were heard over both Lime Kiln and Orca Sound Hps...hmmm. so was it the T18s?...the T2Cs?...who knew - only those whales knew...
...by mid day the T18s came up past Friday Harbor and lots and lots of whales were seen far-off from the southwest side of San Juan Island...the skies clouded over and it rained - not good for seeing things out there...but late in the afternoon Ts were heard over the Lime Kiln - faintly and much louder over the Orca Sound Hps - ah-ha! so they were going north...

...March 14...seems that Ruben Tarte Park on the east side of the island has been a busy 'whale place' lately and I find myself checking out that location often...so...oh, my - there were whales!...very far offshore...at first it looked like four - a male, a juvenile and a couple others...then I saw another - a bigger male...okay, more than 4...must have been some from the day before...they went the opposite direction from where I was, but those out on boats got to see them...

...it isn't always by happenstance that I find whales, often I get a heads up, which is very much appreciated...sometimes it works out and sometimes not...
...so on March 15 when I learn of whales passing Friday Harbor in the morning and going down island...well, out the door at a run!...
...as I am coming down the hill toward Cattle Pass I see a big blow outside of the pass, to the south.  Who's that!  HB or KW?  ...the whales I knew about were coming down San Juan Channel toward Cattle Pass...this was getting even more intriguing!...
...there was a boat with the whales coming down...it was a good size group - the T100s - 7 KWs I believe, but it looked like more...I thought there were a couple of the T49s in there, but later saw that I was wrong...

...and that blow outside of Cattle Pass did belong an adult male, I saw him three times...after the group exited the pass, I drove up to a pull-out and saw the large group that had come out of the pass and then saw one adult male off from the group but traveling in the same direction...
...so it is now ONLY 10:30 in the morning on March 15 and ANOTHER group is coming down San Juan Channel!...this time I was fortunate to get on the Western Prince...
...here's a short clip of the T137s, T46s and some of the T46Bs as they were in travel mode going down San Juan Channel - a busy whale place on this day!

...we stopped at Whale Rocks to see the Steller sea lions - AND - a California sea lion hauled too...

...we then continued back up island...the T2Cs, who had been with that 2nd Group, had slowed down...they were still going down slowly... T2C2 was about 10 minutes behind the others...

...March 16...once again the T2Cs were spotted making their way down San Juan Channel, passing Friday Harbor in the afternoon...

...they continued to travel down the channel and exited Cattle Pass about 6pm or so...

...they passed the Salmon Bank marker going up island...

...I saw them one more time and then was talking to some folks and lost sight of which way they were going...so on towards home and this just stopped me...

This makes the 10th day in a row that the T2Cs have been in these waters, most of that around the San Juan Islands...

 
Read more about the T2Cs on my previous three posts...this is the family who has the whale, T2C2, with scoliosis of the spine.  He is 13 years old this year and they have taken care of him his whole life.  Now that he is growing and his nutritional needs are increasing...his body size is increasing...how will this, if at all, affect his abilities? It is a privilege to watch them.  They are 'what the whales are about'.  The whales are not about their acrobatics, though I too love a spyhop, breach, tailslap, etc...but it's about family and this family shows the humans what orcas are all about - surviving, thriving, caring, helping...