Day of the Dead ~ 2nd Annual Tribute

Last year on November 2nd, the Day of the Dead, I wrote a blog post honoring the Southern Resident Killer Whales that we had lost during the preceding year. I'd like to make this an annual tradition, so here's my second annual Dia de Los Muertos tribute.

J1 Ruffles, estimated birth year 1950

I've already written extensively about Ruffles in a blog post that you can read here, and also honored him with a photo gallery that you can see here. It's still hard to believe that this iconic whale is no longer with us. Seeing J-Pod this year just wasn't the same without the distinct, wavy fin of Ruffles, probably one of if not the most photographed Southern Resident whale. Because of the ease of identifying him, he was especially popular with tourists, many of whom would come back after years of being away and ask about Ruffles. He was also known among local naturalists as "the man", in part because he was the oldest male (by far) in the Southern Resident community. His reputation for being a ladies' man (ladies' whale?) was substantiated by recent genetic research that showed him to be the father of quite a few young whales in the community.

L7 Canuck, estimated birth year 1961

When I think of Canuck, an L-Pod whale, the first thing I think of is how she often traveling with J-Pod. For several years in a row it seemed that she, along with her daughter L53 Lulu and adult male L57 Faith, would spend the winters with their closest relatives in L-Pod but spend the summers traveling with J-Pod. In the last couple of years this pod switching and fragmenting has become more common, but at the time it was especially notable for females to be traveling with a different pod. Canuck seemed to have a strong affiliation with both J1 Ruffles and J2 Granny in J-Pod, so perhaps in the absence of strong connections with other whales in her own pod, she and her daughter spent more time with these elder Js.

Canuck and Lulu were inseparable, and from 1987 onwards made up the extent of their immediate living matriline.  Canuck only ever had one other known calf that didn't survive its first year of life, though its possible she had other offspring before the whales were studied in detail starting in 1976. Despite their very small family, it seems Canuck and Lulu found somewhat of a surrogate family member in Faith, who was the only living member of his own matriline since his mother L45 Asterix passed away in 1995. Faith seemed to enjoy traveling with the eligible J-Pod bachelorettes, but perhaps he found the mother figure he was lacking in Canuck. Often, adult males don't live too long after their own mother passes away unless they latch on to another older female to help fill that role.

In the Center for Whale Research's genealogy guide, they have L43 Jellyroll as a possible sister to Canuck. Jellyroll, who died in 2006, has two living offspring in L72 Racer and L95 Nigel, who would be Canuck's niece and nephew. It's funny, when I think back on my whale encounters, I wouldn't have said Canuck spent much time with them, but when I look through my notes I find otherwise. I list them as either traveling with or near the L43s quite often when the rest of L-Pod is present.

Regardless of which pod Canuck was traveling with, she was always an easy whale to pick out from a crowd because of her distinct notch about a third of the way down her dorsal fin. From my perspective, that made it easier for me to follow her movements and social associations over the years, because she could be easily identified on sight as well as in photos, and even in poor lighting where her saddle patch wasn't visible. It will be interesting to see how Lulu does in the coming years without her mother, and whether she continues the relationship with the J-Pod whales her mother began or goes back to spending more time with her extended L-Pod family.

It is sad to lose these two whales, but others have been born and have started their own journeys as Southern Resident Killer Whales. This year we welcomed K44, a son born to first-time mom K27 Deadhead; L117, born at the end of 2010 to L54 Ino; and L118 born to L55 Nugget.

July 17th - A Foggy Morning With Js

This post is from Saturday morning's trip - a bit delayed because I'm switching internet providers at home and have been without internet for a few days. If you are looking for pictures from Sunday's trips, I will get them up tomorrow, when hopefully I will be back up and running! To answer Dave's question from the morning of the 17th, though - yes, we do see whales in the fog!

I normally associate foggy mornings with August, but we’ve already had several foggy days so far this July. It was pretty patchy fog today, so as we cruised up San Juan Channel we were enjoying the sunshine, and when we got near the whales at first we got to watch them emerging from the fog, which was neat. As they continued north towards us, however, the fog seemed to follow them and soon we were encircled with fog too!

Some people might think viewing whales in the fog is less fun than in the sun, but we actually have some pretty spectacular encounters with the whales in the fog and in addition to providing conditions for some interesting photographs to me it always make the experience seem almost more magical.

Today we caught up with part of J-Pod and the first whales we saw were J1 Ruffles, J2 Granny, and the J14 family group. Here from left to right are J1 Ruffles, J14 Samish, and J30 Riptide:

L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu were also nearby, as they have seemingly switched back to hanging out with J-Pod for a while after hanging with other L-Pod whales earlier in the season. L7 Canuck did a series of big tail slaps:

In addition to the whales, there were a lot of rhinoceros auklets around. I wonder how these and other sea birds, that normally fly just over the surface of the water, manage to navigate through the fog without hitting anything?

While watching the whales we heard several different ships sounding their fog horns, and eventually one would appear from the mists. Here is the Washington State Ferry Chelan coming across Haro Strait in the fog.

Before we left we saw the whales do quite a few spyhops. Normally we’ll just see a single spyhop here and there, so it was unusual to see several sequences of spyhops by different whales. I wonder what they make of trying to see through the foggy air? This spyhop was by J2 Granny:

On the way back to Friday Harbor we went through Spieden Channel, where we were again in the sunshine. The clearer conditions allowed us to see multiple bald eagles soaring over Spieden Island. We also went by Sentinel Island where there were lots of harbor seals hauled out. We are now in the middle of the pupping season and many females have little pups right next to them. There are two in this photo.

J-Pod Near East Point

Once we get into October, the whales may start to spend more time out of the area, so I feel like every encounter is a special one. I myself hadn't seen them for more than a week, so yesterday when I heard that J-Pod was heading south from the Vancouver area, I decided to hop out on the Western Prince. It turned out to be a very good decision!!

We met up with the whales a few miles north of East Point and they were traveling in tight groups. It was one of those times where you get beautiful surfacings with lots of dorsal fins together. I love photos with so many whales at the surface together, and I don't know what it has been this year but its something I've seen a lot. Here's one of my favorites:

The group closest to us included J1 Ruffles, J2 Granny, and J8 Spieden, the three oldest whales in J-Pod who often travel together. With them was J14 Samish and three of her offspring (adult male J30 Riptide, juvenile J40 Suttles, and calf J45). Another young male, J33 Keet, was also in the same group.

From left to right, J2 Granny, calf J45, mom J14 Samish, and J30 Riptide

Oh yes, and don't forget the honorary J-Pod members, L7 Canuck and her daughter L53 Lulu, who never seem to be too far from Ruffles. L53 Lulu is the female on the left in the photo below. This is also a nice comparison of Riptide and Ruffles. When you see Riptide on his own, he looks huge, but when compared to Ruffles, you can tell he still has a little growing to do:

This next shot I love because it captures how close-knit these families are. The four whales in this photo are so close to each other, surrounding the young calf J45. The beautiful layered hills of the Canadian Gulf Islands are in the background:

For some reason there are certain areas where the whales tend to get really active at the surface. One such place is when they are approaching East Point, and yesterday afternoon was no exception. It was one of the most spectacular displays of surface behaviors I have ever seen, as the whales were doing everything from spyhops and tail slaps to cartwheels and breaches. I wonder what the whales are thinking when all this is going on?! They certainly seemed as excited as their human observers on this occasion. Check out this double tail slap by mom and calf:

There is no other way to describe what L53 Lulu was doing than to say she went ballistic. This is something I've only seen once before, where a whale starts doing tail slaps so fast you can't even see her tail moving, all you see is the huge fan of water she's kicking up. It looks more like the result of a breach, but that whole splash is from her tail!

I always wonder what it's like underwater when the whales are doing all these surface behaviors in such close proximity to each other. Sometimes it looks like a whale is tail slapping right into the face of another whale, or that a breaching whale must practically land on another whale underwater. Right after the crazy tailslapping Lulu breached. Here is the result of one breach that happened right near where Ruffles was surfacing:

The whales were still traveling at this point, but you could see splashes here and there, near and far, as they erupted a the surface in a flurry of activity. Here is a whale doing a half-breach between Ruffles and Granny:

All of a sudden, when we hit the Boiling Reef tide rip, the whales fanned out into small groups of 1-3 animals and started foraging. At one point the captain estimated they were spread from Patos Island to East Point and from Skipjack Island to Monarch Head. It got a little harder to keep track of them all as they milled about and went down for longer dives. For a while we had Ruffles foraging near the boat, lunging in different directions as he presumably pursued a salmon.

J31 Tsuchi and J37 Hyshq'a, two young females from different matrilines, were still frolicking a little bit at the surface and ended up swimming right between us and the Patos Lighthouse:

I had to save the best for last. Here is my prized shot of the day, a beautiful breach by L7 Canuck, who was not to be outdone but her very active daughter:

It was such an awesome encounter with J-Pod, as we got to see a little bit of everything from them traveling in tight groups to "going crazy" with surface behaviors to them being spread out and foraging. When it was time to go there suddenly seemed like there were no whales in sight. We saw Ruffles and Granny backtracking towards Patos Island, and we heard later they were back in the north end of Rosario Strait. I've never seem them turn and go down Rosario after "committing" by making the turn at East Point, but it's unclear exactly where they went during the night before showing up on the westside of the island again this morning. It sure is great to have them around for another October!

Superpod in Swanson Channel

After some cooler weather and rain throughout the first week of September we've returned to what feels like summer with clear skies, calm seas, and temperatures in the 70s on the island today. It was a beautiful day to get out on the water, and on the Western Prince we had a great encounter with all three pods up in Swanson Channel in the Canadian Gulf Islands.

The whales were in travel mode when we met up with them, and they were cruising north in several large, tight groups. I think we had nearly all the Southern Residents there (minus the L2s and L5s who were seen down south) so we potentially had as many as 75 whales there! Swanson Channel is a scenic place to watch whales with the cliffs of the Pender Islands in the background, and today the blue waters made for gorgeous photographic opportunities:

With all the confusion lately on who's been traveling with whom, I was extra careful with the IDs I made today, but with views like this one I was certain this time we had J1 Ruffles and J2 Granny there, the oldest male and oldest female. They are pictured here in the center of the photograph surrounded by the other whales they were traveling with. Notice the head of the whale in the foreground that hasn't yet broken the surface:

I wasn't sure who all they were traveling with until I got home, but it looks like they were with L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu (the honorary J-Pod members), the whole J14 family group, and the K12 family group. It's not often you can get a single picture with whales from all three pods...in fact I think today is the first time I've ever gotten a shot like that! From left to right we have L53 Lulu, L7 Canuck, J1 Ruffles, and K12 Sequim:

I love seeing the whales swim in such tight groups, when they are so close they may be touching one another. They were all surfacing in synchrony, so their striking black dorsal fins are partially obscured by the spray from their blows. It was a beautiful sight!

We didn't get any close looks at any of this year's calves, but they were in there! This shot was from far away, but clearly shows how a youngster briefly peaks over the surface right next to mom:

Finally, there had been some confusion about whether or not the L12s (a subgroup of L-Pod that often travels separately) were present, as they were originally the whales reported down south. I thought I saw them today, and this photo confirms it, showing L12 Alexis herself. She has two notches, one in the middle and one at the bottom of the trailing edge of her dorsal fin, which separates her from any other whale in J-, K-, or L-Pods. Click on the photo to see a larger version and see if you can spot her notches:

"Explorer"ing in the Rain With Js and Ls

This morning we went out on the Western Explorer, our zodiac style boat, with an adventurous family that didn't mind the drizzle. We donned ski goggles in addition to our anti-exposure suits and off we went in search of wildlife. On the way down San Juan Channel we saw both adult and juvenile bald eagles as well as a bald eagle nest, and several hundred harbor seals hauled out on Whale Rocks. As we pulled out into the Straits we were surprised to see that the whales we had heard about were much closer than anticipated - right in front of us in fact!

The first two whales we caught up with were brothers J39 Mako (six years old) and J27 Blackberry (18 years old). I've mentioned before about these two brothers and their sister J31 Tsuchi having lost their mother last year, and I'm always glad to see them still sticking tight together despite her loss. Mako is old enough to survive on his own, but it's a lot nicer (for me, and I'm assuming for him, too) to see him traveling right next to his big brother.

Soon the drizzle stopped, and we stopped the boat to observe what would happen next. There had been whales both offshore and inshore of us, but it looked like two groups were starting to converge in front of us. We watched as Mako and Blackberry met up with some other J-Pod whales. As they got together they stopped traveling and started doing this bizarre circling and logging (just hanging out at the surface like a log). Then they all surfaced together facing back the way they had just come:

"Hmm, what are they doing?" we wondered. A moment later, however, Captain Ivan spotted another line of whales coming up from the southeast. They must have decided to wait for the rest of their pod to catch up! Here's the further group of whales heading towards us:

As they neared each other, both lines of whales stayed at the surface for a moment, then they all dove, and where there had once been more than a dozen dorsal fins there were now none. We waited and waited, wondering just what they were up to under the surface. As the minutes dragged on we started scanning farther and farther away wondering if they were traveling some distance underwater before coming back up. Finally we spotted them - both groups had met up and were now traveling north together. It is absolutely one of my favorite things to see when you witness this many orcas all surfacing together:

By looking at my photos I was able to confirm that we were actually with ALL of J-Pod - every single family member was present in this group that was traveling tightly together. That's 26 whales!

There were several neat things that stood out to me today, and both of them are captured in the photo below. One is seeing the oldest male (58 year-old J1 Ruffles) and oldest female (98 year-old J2 Granny) in the Southern Resident Community traveling together. They are speculated to be either brother and sister or mother and son, and it's always a treat to see them together. The other neat thing was seeing so many tall male fins in J-Pod. Not too long ago, Ruffles was the only adult male in J-Pod. Not so any more! Here are Ruffles and Granny seen surfacing with young male J30 Riptide, who now has a fin almost as tall as Ruffles':

It was drizzly out, but it wasn't windy, which allowed their blows to just hang in the air. With the dark trees of Lopez Island behind them, the spouts really stood out. Here are, from back to front, J28 Polaris, J1 Ruffles, an unknown J-Pod member, and J2 Granny:

Not only was all of J-Pod there, but "honorary" J-Pod members L7 Canuck and L53 Lulu were also traveling with them. Other L-Pod whales were spread out offshore of us, but Canuck and Lulu have spent more time with J-Pod over the last year or so than with the rest of their family. It's unusual for whales to travel with another pod in preference to their own for any length of time. Canuck is Lulu's mother, and they aren't known to be closely related to any other L-Pod matrilines, so perhaps this gives them more "freedom" to roam away from their pod. We just don't know for sure. Lulu and then Canuck are the left two whales in this photo:

Usually when the orcas travel across Cattle Pass between Lopez and San Juan Islands, they do so quickly and a ways offshore. Not so today - they did just the opposite. Here you can see a line of J-Pod whales with the houses of Cape San Juan (which is a housing community at the southern most tip of San Juan Island) in the background:

They continued surfacing slowly together as we passed Cattle Point Lighthouse, making for one more fantastic photo op before we headed back to Friday Harbor after an interesting, if a little damp, morning on the water: