Been A Long Time Since Last Posting

Now I know why it has been so long since my last post.

J Pod and the L12s, consisting of 10 whales, except that Solstice L-89 has been missing, so it's 9 of the L12s.  This group of nine have historically traveled together. And we know that because of the years and years of work the Center for Whale Research has done. I can only imagine how many encounters it took to figure out who belonged to who and which family units travel together.  I'm feeling very grateful for all the history CWR has gathered/figured out/etc. which makes it easy in this day.  Thank you!

Can you imagine having only a film camera.  There is no 'instant gratification' of 'you got the image' but you wouldn't know, because the film had to be developed.  Just think on that for a while. You didn't have to get a negative strip.

(What's that? the younger generation of people say!) to then figure out the bits and pieces of identifiable marks on each individual.  Just think about it.  It's mind boggling!

Now we know the history of the family units and it's a heck of a lot easier to figure out who belongs to who.

However, sometimes it has to wait a while, like in the case of Spock K-20 who was seen off the coast of Oregon in late April. The folks who took the video didn't know what a 'gem' they had.  Luckily, it was posted to social media and was seen by a local gal who knows her stuff.  She immediately knew that this was someone "NEW"!  K Pod was seen again in May off the coast of Oregon, but there was no additional information to tie that calf to a specific family.

We had to wait and hope that the calf would come into the inland waters with a mom by his/her side. That day finally came.

But do I have an image to show you?  Of course not.  I too will have to wait until I'm in the right spot and Spock and her oldest, Comet K-38, along with new baby, K-45, surface while I have the camera ready at the right moment.  Oh, the anticipation!

So when you see the SRKWs remember what went into learning who they are, who they belonged to, who their close companions are.

We think of ourselves as 'loving the SRKWs' but what are we 'the humans' doing to actually make a difference 'for the better' for this community of orcas.

Think on that too. And then follow through to help these whales recover.

Thanks for reading this.

Jeanne