4/11/2024 J Pod Spring Time Passby

 4-11-2024

What a wonderful surprise to first hear J Pod calls over the SMRU hydrophones located at Lime Kiln.  I wasn't there but since The Whale Museum has webcam and SMRU has the hydrophones...  Little did I know that J Pod was in two groups.  The first group had already passed County Park, going north and since I am a bit farther north of there I stepped out the door to listen for their blows.  Yes!  Awesome!  I could not see them and they were far offshore, so when their blows faded into the distance I went back inside and opened the web cam site:  TheWhaleMuseum - YouTube

Oh, my goodness! I just heard a very loud J Pod vocal! So I watched and waited and after a while some showed up going north.  

Ahhh - this was group 2.

It's been a long winter and not many sightings, this was very special, even if they were in the distance at Lime Kiln.  Their vocals were awesome too.

I watched and took pictures, though very distant.  This group spent a good bit of time offshore from the lighthouse...with many direction changes and their behaviors indicated they might have been chasing salmon This is often the time of year for the endangered SRKWs to begin coming in...likely following their food source.  Let's hope!

These are not good images but it gives you an idea...they are heavily cropped and taken from the video cam as the action was occuring...

...there were many direction changes and eventually upisland they went.

Thank you J Pod.

2-16-2024 Very Vocal J Pod Today

It started at about 4pm when faint calls were detected over the Lime Kiln Hydrophones. I went to the TWM web cam where I could hear and see at the same time. Right now it's 3 hours later and J Pod is still in the area.

They did not appear to be close to shore as they came down Haro Strait. The web cam scanning was going on in attempts to locate the whales and after a while it did. Difficult to tell how far offshore but they seemed to be a mile or more (just a guess). At one point there were very loud echolocation clicks making it seem that some were in close. Could be or not.  The seas were flat calm and no marine traffic/boats did I hear, until much later.

The whales didn't just pass through they stayed 'wherever they were' likely over near Discovery Island, where Juan de Fuca and Haro Strait merge.

It was a bit over 3 hours later they were last detected. Interesting that they would stay in that one area for multiple hours but their vocalizations indicated that they did.

3+ hours of hearing them makes me wonder if they had met up with some salmon coming in. That would certainly be good if they did. Were they chowing down on some food? Were they hearing others who were out of HP range and were waiting for them? Then there appeared to be a straggler. One call repeated over and over.  hmmm...

Maybe tomorrow will provide more information.                                They know what they are doing!