August 26 - September 14: Catching Up On Whale Sightings!

Yikes, it's been too long since I've blogged again! Just because I've been super busy in all aspects of my life doesn't mean the whale sightings haven't continued to happen. Here's another catch-up blog with some photos and brief descriptions of some of the black and whites I've seen over the last three weeks...

On August 26th, the J17s and J22s spent the afternoon foraging on the west side of San Juan Island. The J17s were off Land Bank, where I got to see every member of the matriline over the course of an hour - including J28 Polaris, who was reported to be looking very thin. It was hard to see her in this condition, but after concerns that she might be living out her last days, I was very grateful to see her at all! This photo (taken from shore) shows depressions around her blowhole and eyepatches that are signs of a malnourished whale.

An unhealthy looking J28 Polaris on August 26th

Fast-forwarding ahead for a moment, J28 - as well her dependent calf J54 (just named Dipper) and older daughter J46 - are all still with us. While she still shows a bit of a depression, in my opinion she looks a little more rounded out like perhaps she's been gaining some weight. The fact that she's made it this long after looking in poor health attests to her fighting spirit! We're all still sending her and her little family lots of strong healing energy and love.

J28 Polaris (left) and a big tail slap from her daughter J46 Star on September 14

On August 28th, after hearing there were transients nearby, we jumped in the boat to get a glimpse of them near Spieden Island. It was the T36s and T99s, and while we were only with them briefly, we caught a little bit of action!

On the evening of August 29th, nearly all the Southern Residents made their way back into inland waters. They split up and spread out as they neared San Juan, so we only saw a few of them from Lime Kiln, but a small mixed group of Js and Ls gave us a nice close sunset pass:

L82 Kasatka and J31 Tsuchi

It was also cool to see a couple small resting groups offshore; resting is a behavior we're, for some reason, not seeing as much of as we used to. One of the groups was the J22 matriline:

J22 Oreo flanked by her sons J38 Cookie and J34 Doublestuf

On August 31st, I was thrilled to be able to share a short but sweet pass by some Ks and Ls at Lime Kiln with my visiting family. 

L86 Surprise

L118 Jade and the youngest member of L-Pod, L123 who was just named Lazuli

While they seemed to be in travel mode, we got treated to a spectacular cartwheel - I don't think I've ever photographed one from this angle before!

It was followed up a moment later by a big breach from L118 Jade:

L118 Jade

On September 2nd Jason and I headed over to Vancouver Island to visit family and take care of some things over there, and amazingly, some whales followed us! We got lucky to get a glimpse of two transients, T2B and T60D, make their way deep into Saanich Inlet. Then, we got even luckier after we traveled around the other side of the inlet and were in the exact right place at the right time to get a close shore-based pass right in Mill Bay! It was extra special to share it with Jason, who grew up going to that beach, but had never even seen orcas before this year.

12 year old male T60D

37 year old female T2B

As a result of being away there was then a week gap in whale sightings for me, remedied on September 10th when the Southern Residents came back in. Technically, it was a superpod - with all the Southern Residents here - and not the first such day of the year. But, I feel like I haven't experienced a true superpod yet this year. They've all been in inland waters at the same time, but SO incredibly spread out. For instance, on this day, spread from Trial Island to Active Pass! To me, a superpod brings up images of a party scene of 80+ whales in tight, intermingling groups...still waiting for that this year! Our September 10th encounter was more indicative of what it's been like this year. Over the course of an hour we saw 7 whales representing members of all three pods, but not even all members of a single matriline and no other fins in sight!

L110 Midnight

K26 Lobo

J42 Echo

On September 11th we saw a distant pass from Lime Kiln, the most notable moment of which was when a humpback whale came cruising north while the whales traveled south. The humpback, who I identified as BCY0409 Yogi, seemed to take exception to the fish-eating whales, trumpeting on every surfacing. Earlier in the day, some other whale watchers had documented humpback whales interfering on a transient killer whale attach on a Steller sea lion...I couldn't help but wonder if this was one of the same humpbacks, just ticked off at orcas in general that day even though the resident orcas posed no threat to it.

On September 14th we had an occurrence that used to be common but hasn't been so much any more - ALL of J-Pod and ALL of K-Pod traveling together! That really shouldn't be a shock, but it's because a rarity these days. J53, who was just named Kiki, was super active at the surface as she often is, and did several half breaches with her mouth open! It's not too often you get to see orca teeth!

J53 Kiki showing her teeth

As usual, K25 Scoter was right with mom!

K13 Skagit and K25 Scoter

We only caught the second half of the pass at Lime Kiln, but the vocalizations were so great we decided to hop in the boat to see if we could get more recordings further north. Wow, did we ever! Not only were the whales very vocal, but something about the water conditions made the calls really resonate so we could hear everything very clearly even from far away. At one point we set up about 1/4 mile off shore from whales foraging along the cliffs at Kellett Bluffs, and recorded for about 20 minutes - quite long for a boat-based recording! We hardly saw any dorsal fins during that time, as the whales were doing long dives and were pretty far away, but the calls made it sound like at times they were talking right into the hydrophone! Take a listen here for a sample of what we heard. 

L87 Onyx

It's been interesting to see such an increase in active foraging behavior over the last couple weeks. Whales aren't just stopping to opportunistically catch a salmon as they travel, they're hanging out in one area for long periods of time and regularly pursuing fish, apparent from their fast surface lunges. Hopefully that's indicative that they're finding more to eat, though their pattern has pretty much been one day up to the Fraser, one day down, one day out.

Even though he was far away at this point, I had to crop this photo because I love this perspective so much - the trailing edge of the dorsal fin of L87 Onyx!

K20 Spock

K20 Spock was one of the whales we saw actively foraging, but she took a moment out of her day to roll at the surface and wave her fins in the air while upside down!

As we tried to make our way back to port we were forestalled by the whales grouping up in Open Bay. While waiting for them to pass, it was neat to see them all together again after having been so spread out for the previous hour. There was a lot of intermingling among whales from both J and K Pods, and apparently they were saying their goodbyes? A bit later I heard K-Pod went back south, while J-Pod continued up to the Fraser River.

Some of the many whales together in Open Bay

Okay, last time I posted a blog post providing a mass update on belated whale reports, it was followed the next day by one of the most spectacular whale encounters of the summer that definitely needed it's own blog post! (In case you missed it, you can see that post here.) Fingers crossed the same thing repeats itself for me tomorrow :)

As we reach the back half of September, thoughts of a long, mostly whale-less winter loom ahead, so every whale encounter becomes extra special. You just don't know when it might be your last for the year! But I'm not ready to pack it in yet, as I'm hopeful for at least two more good weeks of "whale season"!

June 21: Members of All 3 Pods (OBI #7)

The whales have been around on a daily basis (just like the good ol' days!), and that means our research efforts have been on a roll, too. I'm way behind on photos (that is not a complaint!) - I'm just not getting to blog about our 7th research encounter with residents, and today my partner Michael had encounter #15! So let's get right to it.

For the first time of our research season we went out in the early morning hoping to find whales. As would become a trend over the next week, the waters were great, and we headed south on a hunch and found whales near False Bay. On June 21st we found all of J-Pod, all of K-Pod, and the 15 L-Pod whales that have been around (L4s, L47s, and L95) heading north. Over a little over two hours we followed them up to Spieden Channel.

Orca passing Lime Kiln Lighthouse - when I'm not on the boat, that's where I watch whales from, too!

One question I raised is: how do you define a superpod? Many people will call it a superpod when members of all three pods are present, as we had on this day. I used to be likely to call this a superpod, too. But with the whales splitting into so many smaller and varied groups, by that definition, J-Pod Group A, the K14s, and L87 would be a superpod! (I pointed out this potential scenario, not knowing we would have several encounters with that exact group in the near future.) So, I've reverted to the traditional definition of a superpod, which for the Southern Residents means the entire community present. There are still some L-Pod whales that haven't come "in" yet this summer, so we haven't had a chance for a full-fledged superpod just yet. Last year, there was only one day all summer where ALL members of the Southern Resident Community were together.

Anyway, back to this day: at Kellett Bluffs they started to get a bit more active, and we saw some breaches in all different directions:

The "Is this really my life?" shot - likely L82 Kasatka

We got to hang out a bit with J2 Granny, which is always excellent but was especially so because I hadn't seen her in a while. Even she got into the playful spirit, swimming on her back and splashing water with her tail:

Inverted tail slap by J2 Granny, estimated to be over 100 years old

One of the things we're most fascinated by at the Orca Behavior Institute is the social associations among the whales, particularly those from different pods. It's a good time to be studying that, as we get different combinations of whales just about every day we go out! Here's just one example, of J19 Shachi traveling with L82 Kasatka. These whales, while part of the same community, spend most of the year apart. What makes them seek out each other's company on days like this? 

25 year old L82 Kasatka (left) and 36 year-old J19 Shachi

Often we see whales surfacing in synchrony, but on this morning J14 Samish and her daughter J40 Suttles were in absolute perfect unision with one another. You might only think there was one whale here, if not for the two heads visible on the left:

Synchronized breathing between mom J14 Samish and daughter J40 Suttles

Here's an off-angle look at the same pair of whales on another surfacing:

Off Spieden Channel we let the lead group of whales, including the L4s, continue on north:

From left to right: L27 Ophelia, L86 Surprise!, and L116 Finn

On our way back home we encountered several more groups of whales, including these two:

L83 Moonlight and her son L110 Midnight

It was an awesome morning, and as it would turn out, it would be the first of many!

An August Whale Update

No Southern Resident Killer Whales were seen from July 20 to August 7, an unusually lengthy absence during the summer months though not entirely unheard of (in 2000 they were gone for five weeks!) On August 7th a somewhat surprising group of whales returned to the westside of San Juan Island - the L54 matriline along with orphaned boys L88 Wavewalker and L84 Nyssa. Last year, these whales only came into inland waters two or three times over the course of the whole summer, so it was interesting that they should spend some time here by themselves for several days in mid August. What's good to see is that Wavewalker and Nyssa have seemingly found themselves an adopted mom in L54 Ino; often adult males that lose their mothers as these two have don't live much longer unless they find another adult female to latch on to. 

Starting on August 11 all members of J-, K-, and L-Pods made a brief visit to the Salish Sea, the first of several. Each time, they have stayed less than 48 hours, and only on that first visit did they go north to the Fraser River; every other time they've stayed off the south end of San Juan Island before departing out the Strait of Juan de Fuca again. We expect all three pods to be traveling together as we approach fall, but the consensus is there must not be enough fish (Chinook) here to sustain them all for more than about a day.

Looking again at the Albion Chinook test catch data in the lower Fraser River, we see perhaps why this is. There have been a few spikes in Chinook numbers, perhaps luring the Southern Residents back to their traditional foraging grounds here near San Juan Island:

The cumulative numbers are still pretty dismal, however:

People often ask me how I manage to get close photos of the whales so often. The honest answer is: I don't! For many weeks, this is about as close as I got to a killer whale:

Adult male orca off Eagle Point of San Juan Island August 18, 2013

While selfishly I of course want to be seeing the whales every day, the most important thing is that they're finding food wherever they are hanging out. I'm okay with them not being here as long as they're eating! Still, I've been making every attempt to see them when I can, though often it's when you're not trying to hard that things work out. On August 17th I had an appointment to meet someone at Lime Kiln, and was surprised when the L54s and Co. were out off the lighthouse most of the afternoon. They had been around several times, but like the visiting superpods lately, I was beginning not to expect them to go far enough north for shore-based whale watchers like myself to be able to see them. So it was a nice treat.

One big spyhop from L54 Ino was a surprise admist all the foraging these six whales were doing

L88 Wavewalker, a twenty year-old male who is the last living member of his matriline, seems to have found a pal in L108 Coho, a seven year-old male that is one of L54 Ino's offspring. The two were fishing together on this afternoon, and I've heard from others this seems to be a bond in the making.

The superpod visits have been so brief and far from the best shore-based whale watch sites that I had a feeling I was going to have to get out on a boat to see them. The stars aligned for me on the evening of August 22nd, when the news of an incoming superpod aligned with a friend and co-worker being willing and able to take his boat out for a little evening cruise. We headed out from Roche Harbor and met up with the incoming whales in the middle of Haro Strait a little to the northwest of False Bay at about 7:15 PM.

The first group of whales we came across was the L47s. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that seeing this family group of five whales brought a tear to my eye, it was so good to see Southern Residents after weeks and weeks of hoping for this sort of encounter.

From left to right: L91 Muncher, L83 Moonlight, L110 Midnight, L115Mystic

The whales were super spread out over dozens of square miles. In this shot of L91 Muncher surfacing, I didn't even notice until looking at the image on the computer that there's a breaching whale in the background (the little black and white speck on the horizon to her left).

L91 Muncher

L-Pod, in addition to having several "dead end" matrilines with no juvenile or reproductive age females, also has a strongly male-skewed ratio among its young whales. The L47 matriline thus holds an even bigger importance when it comes to the future of the pod. Both juveniles in this family group are males, but there are two reproductive age females. We hope to see Muncher with her first calf soon, and with her first offspring being six years old, L83 Moonlight is could also have another calf at any time.

L83 Moonlight and her six year-old son L110 Midnight. We would expect and hope Moonlight to be having another calf soon; for L-Pod's sake we hope she will have a female!

The L47s were traveling steadily along until Moonlight started feeling a little playful. She did a couple of tail slaps and then a huge breach! I could hardly believe my eyes - such perfect lighting!

Breach by L83 Moonlight

As the L47s continued heading towards the shore of San Juan Island, we moved a little further south where we came across the J22s. We followed along with J32 Rhapsody for a while. She was having a grand old time by herself! While we only saw one breach from Moonlight, Rhapsody must have breached about ten times, with some tail slaps thrown in for good measure.

Breach by J32 Rhapsody

Another breach from J32 Rhapsody

As she continued south, we went a little ways further offshore where we found the K12 matriline. While the sunset lighting on the breaches above was perfect, it was also pretty neat to look in the other direction and have the whales silhouetted against the background of the Olympic Mountains or Vancouver Island.

K37 Rainshadow (left) with his mom K12 Sequim

K33 Tika, who at age 12 has a fin "sprout" - he'll have a towering dorsal fin before too long!

All too soon the sun was setting and it was time to head back. We left the whales heading southeast as we turned back to the north, making a stop along the way to see Lime Kiln Lighthouse from the water side - opposite of where I usually am!

Usually I watch sunsets from the rocks below the lighthouse - this time I was out on the water looking back towards shore

It was a pretty special evening out there, made all the more extraordinary by the news the following morning that the whales were already heading west again back out towards the open ocean, presumably in search of the Chinook they are still not finding here.

A Dozen L-Pod Whales

This morning when we left the dock on the Western Prince, we didn't know which way to turn - north or south. We had reports of whales in either direction, so this was a good problem to have. We decided on north, and the weather was great for a cruise around the north end of San Juan Island into Haro Strait.

We thought we still had a few miles to travel before we got to the whales when one of our passengers and our captain simultaneously spotted some blows in shore. Yet another example of how important it is to keep your eyes scanning the water at all times, just like on Wednesday! As we pulled in a little closer we could see there were about a dozen whales traveling in a tight group, but who were they?

Our passengers often wonder how we are able to ID the whales so quickly, so I thought I would explain the process I went through today. The first clue was that there were no adult males in this group. Some people call adult males "indicator males", since they are often easier to identify and can give you a clue about which family groups to look for. Today, the absence of males was just as much of a hint, as we were seeing mostly females and lots of youngsters, but I still hadn't seen any whales I recognized for sure.

Many of the whales have solid gray saddle patches which can make them more difficult to tell apart from one another, but then I spotted a whale with a distinct open saddle patch. I confirmed by snapping a picture and zooming in my camera, and this is what I saw....

Sure enough, it was L83 Moonlight followed by her three year-old calf L110 Midnight! Once I've identified a whale that's easier to pick out of a crowd, like L83 Moonlight is, I know who else to start looking for. The whales pretty much always travel in their immediate family groups, so a female and all of her offspring will usually be right together. Also, from experience, I know which family groups are often together, so that helped me piece together the rest of today's puzzle. By looking at my photos after the trip I was able to confirm what I suspected on the boat: we had the 12 whales that make up the L47s, L55s, and L86s (the latter two are often referred to as the L4s, though I prefer to refer to the matrilines by the living females).

Here are a few more photos showing some of the other whales in this group. Below is L55 Nugget and her youngest, three year-old L109 Takoda:

From left to right in the photo below are three adult females: L27 Ophelia, L86 Surprise, and L82 Kasatka.

I always love when we see the whales swimming and surfacing in a tight group as they were today. Someone remarked that they looked like they were so close they could be touching, and when they are as close as in the photo below, they probably are! It's just another example of the tight family bonds among these whales. The right most dorsal fin belongs to L86 Surprise and you can see the little head of her one year-old calf L112 popping up in front. The other two fins in the back are L47 Marina (left) and her daughter L91 Muncher (right).

While adult males with their impressive six-foot dorsal fins are a sight to see, it's also special to see a productive family group like the one we saw today. So many young whales and their moms indicate what will hopefully be a positive future for this population of orcas!