4-15-18 Killer Whales Coordinating Meeting Places and Times?

Sunday, April 15th
...the hydrophones had been down from 9pm April 12th until the morning of April 14th...could J Pod or others have come by during that time - we will likely never know...
...so at 1:00 a.m. (middle of the night) Transient calls woke me up...they lasted about ten minutes...so when I got an invitation to go out on the Western Prince today, I thought "why, yes!"...I didn't expect those Ts would be located because it was eleven hours later when we left the dock in Friday Harbor...
...but with no wind, not much sun, and no rain (which was on its way for Monday), it would be nice to get out on the water...
...there was a report of a possible baleen whale off the the southeast, so we headed that way...well, we ended up being in the right place at the right time...never did see a baleen whale, but one of the captains notified Capt. Michael that there was a large group of killer whales headed our way!
...need I say more?!
...what a day!  We had heard about the new baby of, mom, T65A...and here that little one was! 

...and new baby lumpiness too...

...there was another baby, born last November whom I hadn't seen-belongs to the T49As - well got to see that baby today too...

...was that enough?  I guess not because...well here is the bigger story:  It's about T65A3. ...each year the T65As have been seen, 3rd offspring, T65A3 has been with the family...but this year, the first time we saw any of the T65As, it was only T65A3 and he showed up with T49C, an adult male and brother of T49A...common for males to disburse when they reach a certain age...however, T65A3 is much younger than expected to have done that.
So what were T49C and T65A3, doing together?
...and...
Where were the rest of the T65As? 

A friend suggested that maybe mom was having a baby so he had disbursed.  She might not have realized at the time that she would end up being right! This was yesterday and T65A3 is right in there with all his mother and younger siblings. T65A2 was present too, just not in this surfacing sequence.

So somewhere between April 6th and April 15th T65A3 got to meet his new sibling! 
T49C is usually seen either alone or with one other and somewhere between the 6th and the 15th he went on his way - somewhere.

Today the four families T36As, T49As, T65As, and T123s were traveling pretty tight, so not everyone would surface at the same time.  

...more to come, but here are a couple more images from the great encounter we had today...Thanks for the invite and to Capt. Michael, Katie and Elah and all those passengers for wanting to take a trip on the Western Prince today - WOW!

Notation: T49A1 had disbursed from his family early in 2017(some time after April)...his mother had a baby in November of 2017...it will be interesting to learn if he stays with his family now...I think it is more common for 1st born males to stay with their mother and subsequent born males to disburse...but that's what we think, not necessarily what they do...
Whether Southern Residents or Transients, they have a complex social structure, much more than most might think.

What might have gone on here? communication, coordination, meeting times and locations...and who knows what else might have been involved in this event...at least that is what I think.  
The whales don't just wander around and bump into one another along the way...well, maybe some do, just like us when we 'run into someone' we haven't seen in a while...

...but this was an event..
...so glad to get a glimpse into their world today.

...another note about coordinating:  there was some KOMO 4 (I think) helicopter video taken of the T137s in Puget Sound on April 9th...though it was not always easy to tell if they were actually directional or not...they looked like they were just waiting around...
...and sooooo...when Orca Network posted some images, that were taken by someone on April 10th, of the T137s approaching the T65As and that new baby T65A6 was in the image.

Now I wonder even more about the 

whales coordinating with each other.

5-19-16 They Stayed Day After Day

Thursday, May 19th
...well they stayed around...with others too...
...on the evening of May 17th some people on the ferry, just about to arrive in Friday Harbor, were greeted with a group of killer whales chasing after Dall's porpoise...I learned about it and how extraordinary it was when I received a frantic phone call!!  :)
...on the 18th those whales, the T75Bs and the T77s were still around, though over on the Canadian side, in among some of the gulf islands...not sure where they were, or if, seen on the 19th...
...now for the 19th, late afternoon trip on Peregrine with Capt. Jim at the helm...the T36As, T65As and Bs, the T99s were together again...T93 and T97 were off in the distance...off to the west were T11 and T11A...and a few miles north of all of them were the T123s - WHEW!

...it appears they had made a kill a short while before...

...the lighting at this time of day was pretty nice...

...I've seen them ragged and smallish nicks but this is quite large...

...Patos Island...

...Pt. Roberts area in the distance...

...day after day of these transients continues as the norm...for now anyway...

 

4-9-16 Take Your Pick N,S,E, or W

Thursday through Saturday, April 7-9th
...something strange/unusual or just plain foggy occurred each of these last three days...
...April 7th - out looking for whales on Peregrine with Capt. Jim...a man on an island hailed us over to ask for assistance (he was fine he needed a part for his boat)...problem is we are on a U.S. boat and we were in Canadian waters so we could not moor the boat...Capt. Jim was able to get information to someone in Canada to assist him...never had that happen before...
...we keep going...off to the east in the U. S....Mt. Baker with fog along the water...pretty, but fog was not something we wanted to see...

...we kept searching...and then we hear, "contact"!...it might have been the assist boat that spotted the whales...

...it was two family groups of transients...the T123s with three members, and the T49As with four members...a few images from the day...

...this one unusual and weird...the two males T49A1 and T123A...

...early the next morning whales were spotted coming west in Spieden Channel...we were going out at 9:30 because the wind was supposed to pick up in the afternoon...the entire island had lost power in the night...no coffee, no showers, no nothing...and no fuel docks with power for fueling up boats - yikes!...the trip was certainly starting out as an adventure...by the time it was all worked out - that in itself was rather wild...the 'trail' of those whales was cold...but try we would...
...Dave from the Center for Whale Research had come out and was taking the west side of Haro Strait and we, on Peregrine with Capt. Andy went up on the east side...traveling at a steady and moderate speed was perfect for scanning...Dave called to say he thought he saw some blows but a ship had just passed by leaving a huge wake...a few minutes later both boats saw them at just about the same time - "contact"! 
...it was the same whales as the day before, the T123s and the T49As traveling slow and steady up Boundary Pass...

...then we get to Saturday, the 9th...fog, fog, and more fog...
...one of the Victoria boats 'stumbled upon' some whales while they were heading out in the morning toward San Juan Island...but lost them in the fog...as much as we searched, to no avail...people were hearing them over the Lime Kiln hydrophones (link to the Lime Kiln hydrophones top/left column on this blog), intermittently for close to an hour.
...then by the afternoon the fog had lifted and the whales, the T18s were spotted a couple miles off the south end of San Juan Island...by the time we got down that way those same whales had gone up San Juan Channel and fast!...they were already passed Friday Harbor by the time we got there...
...there are four whales in the T18 group...two were traveling close to the island and the other were spread out a bit and were far off shore...

...they eventually came together but only after what appeared to be, either T18 or T19C having a passing kerfuffle with a Steller sea lion...
...the whales continued on but the sea lion was acting strangely...and came over to the boat...the sea lion swam around the boat, rolling around under but close to the surface...he appeared to be using us for possible protection...seen this type of behavior in the past...soon he moved away and so did we...

...one day transients were on the west side of the islands, the next on the north side of the islands, and the third day on the south and over and up the east side of the islands...surrounded :) 






...and the J17s and the J22s...well they were still in Puget Sound today...and so far, no word, as far as I know, on the rest of J Pod...and the answer as to why continues to loom on the horizon...

 

4-26-14 The T123s Save the Day!

Saturday, April 26th
...it was quite late in the day for a trip...4:00pm...all day long no whales sighted except for the two males who look alike, were heading west...out of our range...and then just as we were about to leave the harbor Capt. Jim of Maya's Westside Charters gets a call, Simon of Ocean Ecoventures was the 'hero' of the day when he spotted a humpback whale and then the Ts...
...with no one on scene by the time we would be arriving, it was a gamble but the whales were coming down Trincomali Channel and we were going to be going up that channel...
...one of the passengers spotted the whales first - way to go Barb!...this sail boat was just coming from the shore and had an encounter and a spyhop from T123C...

...it was a bit choppy making it challenging for pictures!...we too got lucky...

...

...the possibility of 'take out' food may have been why the little one was all over the place...

...the whales were coming east away from the dark clouds...

...I guess this really shows what an overbite he has!

...mom, T123, looks to be healing from all those scratches...

...here's how it looked a couple weeks ago...

...I'll send this to the Center for Whale Research to get confirmation or not on the sex of this little one...

...T123C was bouncing around alot...

...making it a challenge to get them all up at the same time...but this was when we first saw them...a family picture :)

...a couple weeks ago when we encountered this group - link to that post - they were coming down through Active Pass...it seems they spend a good bit of time up in this area...

4-10-14 This Killer Whale Family Needs a Nickname

Thursday, April 10th
...out on Maya's Westside Charters for an afternoon trip...shortly after leaving the dock we got word of whales sighted in the Strait of Georgia...

...

 ...

...it wasn't until I was looking at my images from the day that I noticed something very unusual on T123...
...at first I thought my focus was off, until I zoomed in...

...'wrong'? well, only because her smooth skin just wasn't...
...then I looked back at the last time I saw her...

...I only got one other image that showed more of the markings...

...I sent the images to the Ken Balcomb and Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research, and to Jared Towers of the DFO Biological Station at Nanaimo..it will be interesting to hear back as to what these markings are from...
...there are so many marks...and they all appear to be horizontal lines...there is one section (bottom arrow) that even has a small divot out of it...and the other 2 arrows point to where it there are other small divots...

...well, she seemed just as normal as can be with her oldest, T123A and young one, I think about 2 years old,...

...T123A has had a skin issue for a while now...aside from the tagging remains, notice how patchy his dorsal fin is...it is like that on both sides...

...now both mom and oldest offspring have skin issues...

...it's just

 'begging for a nickname' 

for this family...