Monday, January 1, 2017
When Granny turned 100...I made a birthday card...(that was 5 years ago)
Granny is gone. It breaks my heart. I loved saying (loudly) "there's Granny"...I
wanted everyone on the shore to meet Granny, the most famous whale
in the wild. Because until they knew who they were seeing they were
only seeing a whale.
Often she would come in close to the shore at the lighthouse.
She sure seemed to be looking at us there on the rocks looking at her, awe struck as most were.
Granny was royalty. As one boat operator used to
say when he saw Ruffles and Granny, "his and her majesty..."
yes...the end of an era...sadly in more ways than one.
...the last image I have of Granny was on 9/22. It was almost dark (I lightened the image so she was more visible) as the whales were coming down island.
...were
there enough salmon, were there clean waters, no threat of more noise
or oil spills, we could sit back and watch as the next in line takes
over and helps to manage their reign...
...but
I am afraid that this next generation and the little ones who belong to
the generation after that are in for a very rough time...I hope I am
wrong.
...if
the humans worked to have a better world for our next human generations
there would then be a better world for the orca generations too.
Granny lived a long life. It would have been nicer if she could have left this world knowing that her kin had an abundance of salmon, healthy seas, clean air to keep them strong.
Instead you already know what the whales face.
As we move forward, after we process this loss, our energy needs to look at what is ahead for there are 78 whales we need to turn our focus to.
Here are some questions:
Who will be the leader of all three pods now?
Will they become more disjointed than they have been?
What about the K14s? Is there a role that Lea K-14 will take up? After all she and her family spent an extraordinary amount of time with Granny's group - Group A. Will she become a leader of J and K pods combined?
What about L Pod? Do they know that Granny is gone? L Pod came into Haro Strait on the same day that there was a press conference in Seattle about the deaths of Polaris J-28 and Dipper J-54. All of L Pod was here. Some thought they were here to pay tribute to Polaris and Dipper. I wonder if anyone has a proof of presence image of Granny from after that date? If not, maybe L Pod knew and they were paying tribute to Granny.
What about Onyx L-87? So what if he is a male, will the role of this male change?...or will he find another female to attach himself to?
And Se-Yi-Chn J-45...he worries me...he lost his mother and now his great-grandmother...at first I saw him with his sisters and as time passed I was seeing him with Onyx L-87 and Mako J-39 a few times...
Will it be seamless or will we notice things that will help us understand?
A couple times I noticed Shachi J-19 by herself, not off by her self, but traveling in the middle of spread out whales and by herself.
Would she become the next matriarch?
Late this past season I noticed Granny with the J16s. That was very curious. It was out of the ordinary. Slick J-16 in the lead with Granny behind her a ways, and Mike J-26, Slick's oldest male, on the offshore side...hum...highly unusual...
In the late part of the year the J Pod whales acted, to me, like they were lost...like they didn't know which way to go or they didn't know what to do...their travel also seemed unusual...
...they have lost their leader...how will that impact this community who has not ever been without a leader?
...Will we see a big 'whale convention' where they hash it all out and 'elect' a new leader? Is that how they do it? It doesn't seem, to me, that K Pod ever got a clear leader after Lummi K-7 and then Georgia K-11 died...but they seem to be doing okay...at least for now...
...do we even know what their process is?
...and for now we can only watch and record what we see and hope to someday put the puzzle together, even though we will likely have to do it by working backwards.
Wednesday, December 28th
J Pod showed up in San Juan Channel and spent a good portion of the afternoon spread out throughout the top end of the channel...then they began to get back together and had picked a direction...
...I was watching from shore...the whales were far away...some had gone behind Spieden Island out of my view, and at least one was in Spieden Channel and had moved far enough west that he was to the west of the boat house (not sure that is the correct term - but it's toward the eastern end on the south side) on Spieden Island.
...The Center for Whale Research was out as were a few whale watching boats...
...then came this...
...later someone said it was a navy plane and commented on the noise level...maybe once upon a time it was a navy plane, but I wonder about now.
It buzzed the whales.
Maybe whoever was in the plane didn't know orcas were there and wanted to see what those whale watching boats were looking at.
It appeared to be flying quite low, lower than what one normally sees, and way lower than what is permitted when whales are present.
...just the day before there was a candlelight vigil to honor the Southern Residents and for the struggles they have had and continue to experience.
...some folks wrote messages on rocks...I saw this and thought 'how fitting'...
...it isn't just the noise from under the surface.
Tuesday, December 27th
...with so many losses in the Southern Resident Community and two very shocking ones - the death of Samish J-14 in the middle of summer and now the death of DoubleStuf J-34 this month, a friend was very distraught.
Thinking of all the things she has done and continues to do and her not realizing how much she actually does, I tried to convey to her some of the things she has told me she has done and continues to do.
I decided to share it with others here on my blog. Have you a friend who needs a bit of encouragement? Poetry or drawings or just a phone call or two...
Sunday, early, early morning Christmas morning
so early it was only 1:25 a.m when they woke me up!
How very fortunate we are to be able to hear the whales even when we can't see them.
So enjoy the sounds of some of J and K pods and Onyx L-87 too, in the wee hours of Christmas morning.
They might not be loud as they sometimes are, but that's okay. They give us the gift of their presence no matter what the volume might be.
You'll hear them again and each time will be special because it never occurs exactly the same.
May those sounds carry you throughout the year.
Merry Christmas.
Saturday, December 24th
...transient orcas were seen not too far distant and then they decided to come up the west side of San Juan Island...
...it was the T19s...I only saw T19, T19B and T19C...
...their blows were stunning to see...
...they were slowly moving up island...and just down from the park they dove and didn't surface until a good distance north of the lighthouse...and it looked like, from their behavior, they appeared to be after a harbor seal which gave the opportunity to get a couple different angles
...then up to County Park as they continued up island...
...home to listen to the Orca Sound hydrophones...and soon I heard them vocalizing as they continued north...those calls began at about 2:25pm and continued intermittently for about 20 minutes.
...then I heard them over the Lime Kiln hydrophones - very faint and brief...I figured they were on the far side of Haro Strait...there are a couple areas there that the Orca Sound hydrophones don't picks up calls but Lime Kiln will...
...then it was quiet of calls...
...now for the Merry Christmas Eve From the Whales...
...looking at the images of the Ts...with the hydrophones streaming in the background...didn't figure I would hear the Ts again...
...and then...and then..."Oh, my, it's Residents!"
...I don't know who else but I know I needed that today...I don't think they had been seen by anyone today, but here they were and they were on the Lime Kiln hydrophones for close to 2 hours...faint K Pod calls had started at 4:10 pm and then J pod calls soon started...they got a bit louder...so off I went in search of them, but there wasn't much daylight left...never did see them but when I got back home they were still vocalizing over the hydrophones.
Yes, Merry Christmas from the whales it was.
