5-12-18 Transients In Small Groups

Saturday, May 12th
...out on the Western Prince on a few trips recently:
 
On May 5th it was the T90s and T002B...but first it was a branded California sea lion:

On May 10th it was some of the T124As:

On May 11th it was a humpback and also the T123s (who have been seen a lot lately):

...the branded sea lion images get sent in to specific sea lion researchers for tracking...actually there have been two other CA sea lions with partial brands (not included in these images)...that's unusual, as far as I know, for seeing several branded ones up here. The three that I sent in were branded at the Columbia River, by Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife.   

...thinking about the Southern Residents...
...Albion test fishery that starts each year on April 1, has so far had one (yes, only one) Chinook salmon in their count...
here are prior year comparisons for the time frame of 4/12 - 5/12
in 1985 - 30
in 1989 - 48
in 1993 - 49
in 1997 - 54
in 2001 - 58
in 2004 - 27
in 2005 - 21
in 2006 - 39
in 2007 -  no data
in 2008 - 4
in 2009 - 21
in 2010 - 12
in 2011 - 27
in 2012 - 5
in 2013 - 1
in 2014 - 20
in 2015 - 7
in 2016 - 0
in 2017 - 3

...with the time the SRKWs have been gone out to sea, is a possible indicator that they are finding food on the outer coast, or they know there is absolutely no salmon coming in so they are searching further for food...