A quick accounting of the last few days, lest I get lost in all this mixing up...I care but the whales don't...they just want salmon, please...
Wednesday 7-16
Only the 10 J Pod whales who were present yesterday, were seen today.
The J16 family of 5, and 5 of the J17 family. It appears that Star J-46 was likely with Tsuchi J-31 or Suttles J-40 and the rest of J Pod who had gone west towards the open ocean. (fast forward to the 18th - Star J-46 was with her family.)
The J16s and J17s spent their day traveling southeast the Strait of Georgia, passing Pt. Roberts and heading toward Rosario Strait late in the day.
The
10 SRKWs who have been in the Salish Sea, had evidently come down Rosario Strait
in the night because they were seen coming up the west side of San Juan Island where they spent
most of the day between Eagle Pt. to just north of Lime Kiln. In the
late afternoon, after they had passed Lime Kiln and were at Andrews Bay,
to the north, other whales - K Pod whales showed up, totally
unexpectedly. No one knew they were 'in', likely because the seas in
Juan de Fuca were rough.
The
whales present now totaled at least 21 (some Js and some Ks) and all went
back down island. They could be heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones
until about 22:45, until drowned out by ship noise.
Wednesday 7-18
Today the total # of SRKWs was 24. All of J Pod and one L Pod whale who travels exclusively with J Pod.
The K Pod whales who were here yesterday were not seen anywhere today.
The
whales were in Haro Strait all night on the 17th, and into the 18th,
the majority of them heading north towards Active Pass.
There
was a small group of five, who stayed along the west side of SJI.
Food for thought:
Of
those five, three had come up island passing the lighthouse in the
morning with the all of J Pod, except Blackberry J-27...but then, about an hour later, the three - Tsuchi J-31,
Oreo J-22, and Cookie J-38, left the large group and came back down
island to where Blackberry J-27 and Onyx L-87 were.
Late in the day they came up island at about 9pm and could be heard over the Lime Kiln hydrophones until around 11p.m., (while I was writing this post) Onyx L-87 continued vocalizing his distinctive call well into the distance.
...interesting to note...when he did this before it was like he was calling out to others, perhaps other Ls...and the following day it showed that maybe he had, because when he was seen he was with L Pod whales incoming - that was a few years ago...still gets one to wonder...so we shall see what, if anything, occurs.
Are they splitting and mixing in order to find enough food?
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