4-29-23 J Pod

 It was a crazy day attempting to see J Pod.  Some were seen coming up San Juan Channel from Cattle Pass and a few others were seen a good distance off South Beach area, in Haro Strait. The whales stayed basically out of view, to the north of the pass, for quite a while.

Eventually those in San Juan Channel came south out of the Pass and appeared to be heading up island. I went to the Park hoping they would come up island.  Well, a few did.

4-24-23 An Unexpected Encounter With J Pod

It began with Transient orcas coming down San Juan Channel and while still watching the Ts...word came of J Pod heading south...just around the 'corner' from where the Ts were at the south end of the island.        J Pod was far offshore and heading away from SJI.

I was asked, if J Pod decided to go back north, how long would it take them because The Whale Museum's Marine Naturalist Class was going to be at the Lighthouse in the afternoon and she hoped to see them.

But the whales were not going in that direction...that is...until they did!  

The whales made it 'just on time!' to the lighthouse and the class was still there and had a great encounter from shore with J Pod and well as many other people! (I wish I remembered her name because she must have been asking J Pod all day to show up at Lime Kiln for the MNTP class.) WOW! 

Here are some images of the whales as they approached and at the end there is an audio clip - yes, they were very 'chatty' today...

Thank You J Pod.

 

4-21-2023-Orca Connections With One Another

At The Whale Musem's Marine Naturalist Training Program Spring Class today April 21, 2023, I was asked a question about the connections the Southern Resident orcas have with one another.  (Thank you for asking the question.)

It brought up the connection between Cookie J-38 and Rhapsody J-32, and how Granny J-2, the matriarch of the community was involved. 

...to me, this is a glimpse of how complex they are in their society, their intelligence and emotional abilities...it sure seemed as if there was something much more than these two whales traveling together today...

1st Post: December 5, 2014

...it happened yesterday...on the CTV, Victoria news...they announced a whale was seen floating in the water near a resort at Comox, British Columbia...I grabbed my camera to get a screen shot for reference...

...but it wasn't long before images came of the saddle patch...it was Rhapsody J-32...oh, so sad is all I can say right now...
...she was here on November 29th with the rest of J pod...

...that is the day they disappeared before our eyes...a few days later it was said that J pod was seen passing Victoria, but it was actually K Pod. So Js had gone north.

...she gave people the gift of her energy and playfulness...

...and of her breaching - of course!...

...you could count on Rhapsody to be seen with certain other whales...Cookie J-38, was one for sure...maybe he was her 'best friend'...though it seemed she had many...

...her last gift might be that of the revealing of information about what is happening to this community......it is hoped that with a necropsy we will know for sure why she died...Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research will be there for that.

2nd Post: December 10, 2014

...with the winds and the storms we have had here the last few days, I cannot help but be grateful, grateful for where and when Rhapsody died, and grateful to the person who saw her and knew the importance to save her is the only way she could now be saved...

..if all that had not occurred we would have never known what happened, instead she would have just not returned with the rest of J pod...

...to see her on the TV news was a shock for sure...'here I am' it felt like she was saying...
...it's beyond the point of 'oh, how sad' it's beyond the point of 'cause of death undetermined'...and shrug our shoulders and move on...no!

...Rhapsody gave us her life and the life of her unborn calf...
...what more is needed? 

...her breaches are now silent and they will be missed...
...were there more to those breaches that we didn't see?...
...was she telling us something but we couldn't hear?
...with our eyes or our ears not going beyond...
...but, no, the salmon call has been out for a long long time...

...please, do something now...
...it must come quickly, the whales don't have much time...
...to fix the main issue of starvation is on the line...

...now it's back to pouring over images from the last several years...already they are revealing things that might not have been known before...

..lest they be forgotten, three others in 2014 died...
Lulu L-53, was known as the L pod breacher...during the summer she would often be seen with Group B...

...Indigo L-100...he too didn't return with his family...we will never know what happened to this magnificent young male...

...baby L-120...who brought everyone such joy and hope...

...and now J-32...

...we can't just remember them, something has to be done to stop all this dying. (it's now 9 years later - 2023 and not enough is being done.)

Are you familiar with 'the canary in the coal mine' phrase?...for more than 10 years the whales have been referred to like 'the canary in the coal mine'. 
Miners used to take a canary in a cage down into the mine and when the canary stopped singing they had better get out or they too would die.  'an indicator' those canaries were...and that's what the whales are 'indicators' as to what has been and continues to go on...and that affects the humans...
...and that's just beyond sad...

3rd Post: December 24, 2014

...the day before Christmas and all through the day, J Pod showed up with travel, breaching, and play!
...that's Jones Island in the distance...

...in the opposite direction...

...what a treat for those on the international ferry...

...before the whales entered Spieden Channel...

...at this point it looked as if most of the whales were heading north and were going to pass between the east end of Spieden Island and Flat Top Island, but that changed quickly!
...it wasn't long before another boat came along...and seeing the way in which the people on the boat were looking, well, it seemed that there might be some other whales coming into Spieden Channel and closer to shore...

...it was very interesting to see Cookie J-38 and Granny J-2 traveling together...and that was definitely 'traveling together'...

...several minutes later Granny surfaced...

...Cookie J-38 was behind her...

...what I find significant about Cookie and Granny traveling together is that it's not common...Cookie is most often with his family and especially Rhapsody J-32 before she died earlier in December.  For Cookie to be with Granny, something is going on.
...I didn't see them for a long time today but on enough surfacings to conclude that they were together, at least for a while, and they were not mixed in with others when I saw them go by...
...off in the distance the J14s and others were moving into Spieden Channel...

...behind Granny and Cookie were Mako J-39 and Onyx L-87...

...Mako was born the same year as Cookie and they have been buddies all along...so considering the circumstances it didn't surprise me to see him with Onyx L-87 - but then again this is all summation on my part...
...also seeing Mako with Onyx reminded me of March of 2009 and an encounter with J Pod off the west side...the prior summer Mako's mom, Blossom J-11, had died, so the time frame was much different than the time frame of Rhapsody's dying and today, which is a period of just three weeks...
...however, back then Granny J-2 and Ruffles J-1 were with Blossom's three offspring - Blackberry J-27, Tuschi J-31, and Mako J-39 and they were quite far offshore from the rest of J Pod...they were moving in almost slow motion, intermingling, and in close proximity to one another...after a while Granny J-2 and Mako J-39 moved off and traveled toward shore, while the other three stayed where they were...
...Granny and Mako traveling together, well that too was unusual...

...looking back 9 years and sadly things for the SRKWs have only brought more challenges.  Can we at least allow them to have quiet seas, please?

April 5 - Part 3 - J Pod

 This is the 3rd & last post of a very good day!

The inset highlights the harbor seals hauled out at the north end of Goose Island. Of course the seals were paying great attention to the orcas :)

...some of the whales had made the turn and were coming down close along the SJI shoreline. 

Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41, Crescent J-58

(recap of Cattle Pass encounter: first seen coming down far offshore...then another group of J Pod whales were coming down a bit closer and they were heading into the really rough incoming current...then this group paused and changed direction and went north a short distance and then turned toward shore and came down between Goose Ialand and SJI - the images on this page show that.)

And then...After it seemed that all had exited Cattle Pass, a person I was talking with noticed some whales really far across and further down from where the first of the whales were seen.

They were some of the J Pod whales and their behavior looked as if they were foraging.  To say the least, it was a confusing afternoon...but the whales knew what they were doing!

This 'event' raised a few questions...

I had heard that the whales had been in mid-channel and were foraging, taking their time before getting to Cattle Pass.  Then seeing some of the whales (maybe all - they were so far away) appearing to be foraging off the south end of Lopez Island...hmmm...What are they foraging on?

Was there a herring run somewhee??? that brought in salmon? 

Had there been a salmon release from a hatchery?

Were the Spring Chinook returning?

All questions?

On this day as the seas began to get rough and the wind picked up and some Transient orcas had been seen in a totally different area, the SRKWs had only the ocean to contend with - YAY!  

We can only hope they will have a successful year.

April 5 - Part 2 - J Pod

Part 2 as they were coming around and going down the inside.

 

 

                        There is still more....Part 3 will be next.