Day of the Dead

Today is Dia de los Muertos, a Latin American holiday that celebrates and honors those that have died. I wanted to take a moment today to remember the whales that we lost this year from the Southern Resident Community of killer whales.

K11 ~ Georgia (estimated birth year 1933)

K11 Georgia was the oldest living whale in K-Pod. She was the probable daughter of K7 Lummi, who passed away in 2008 at the estimated age of 98, and the probable mother of K13 Skagit, who has four offspring of her own. I always loved talking about this matriline as a naturalist, because for a while there were five living generations of orcas all traveling together.

Lummi and Georgia were two iconic whales of K-Pod. Both were easy to identify - Lummi with her two notches, and Georgia with her distinct open saddle patches - and they were always together, often in front leading the way. Georgia took on another special role in recent years when she seemingly became the adopted mother to L87 Onyx, who had lost his own mother. Onyx basically switched pods to be with Georgia and her family, and many were and are concerned about how he will adapt after losing another mama figure. (It seems like he may have latched on to J8 Spieden, another older female.)

It seemed like K-Pod kind of "reshuffled" with the loss of their oldest whale Lummi, and it will be interesting to see what changes now that Georgia has passed on as well. The oldest living whale in the pod is now K40 Raggedy, estimated to be 47 years old, and she has always been a bit of a rogue. She and her brother K21 Cappuccino don't always travel with the rest of the pod, and she has never been seen with a calf. Of course we will never know for sure, but it will be interesting to see if any changes happen in terms of socialization or travel patterns with the loss of Georgia.

L73 ~ Flash (born 1986)

Flash was the one whale that more often than not got mistaken for J1 Ruffles. He had a very similar wavy dorsal fin which led to much speculation about who is father likely was. He could be distinguished from Ruffles in part by a notch at the base of his dorsal fin. Flash is also unique in that he is the only Southern Resident to receive a name that had previously been given to another whale. Flash the First was L48, a whale that died at the age of six in 1983.

I took this photo of Flash on May 14th of this year, and he went missing shortly thereafter. It's always sad to lose a whale, but is especially of concern when it is a younger whale in their prime, as Flash should have been at the age of 24. When it is a male whale that is lost, the role of toxins always becomes a question, because unlike females they have no way to offload the bio-accumulated chemicals like DDT, PCBs, and PBDEs, which can all tax the immune system.

Whenever I saw Flash I would look for another big male, L74 Saanich, who also went missing this year. These two males were cousins and seemed to be good buddies. I wonder if the loss of his friend played any role in the deteriorating of Flash's health. Adult males especially seem to be susceptible to not living long after other important whales in their life pass on. He is, however, survived by his mother, L5 Tanya.

L74 ~ Saanich (born 1986)

Saanich, named after a district and peninsula on Vancouver Island, was another adult male that should have been in his prime. He had been living without any immediate family members since his mother  L3 Oriana died in 2002, but had really latched on to L73 Flash and the two were nearly always seen together.

Saanich didn't have any real distinguishing marks, but I always looked for his by his especially broad, butter knife-shape dorsal fin. He had a small indentation near the top of his fin that you could use to pick him out in photographs. 

My favorite encounter with Saanich happened on July 21, 2007, when the above photo was taken. It was a cold, rainy day at Lime Kiln Lighthouse and most of the whales had already gone by. Many of the people watching had decided to leave by then, but a few of us die-hard whale watchers kept standing in the chilly drizzle because there were a couple of whales, including Saanich, milling around a ways offshore. Slowly, slowly, they started zig-zagging their way closer to shore. Eventually they went into the cove just north of the lighthouse, and came back and a forth a few times through the kelp just in front of us. All feelings of discomfort were forgotten during that special encounter, one each witness still remembers clearly to this day. It wasn't until the whales finally moved on that I realized I was drenched and could no longer feel my fingers! My camera had a plastic bag over it to try and protect it from the elements.

I don't know what caused you to lose your life at such a young age, Saanich, but you will certainly be missed.

L114 ~ Unnamed (born 2010)

This last whale is one I never got to meet. It was first reported February 21st of this year by the Center for Whale Research, who saw this new calf with first-time mother L77 Matia. This was exciting news, because Matia's sister L94 Calypso had also had her first calf in October 2009, and all of a sudden the L12 subpod, which had been made up of only adult whales for a long time, had two new members. Unfortunately first born calves especially have a high mortality rate, and it's not believed that this little whale survived more than a couple of days. I can only imagine what it must be like for Matia to watch her sister raising her first calf when she has lost her own.

I can't mention the whales we have lost without also mentioning the whales we have gained. We've had four other calves born in 2010: J47 to J35 Talequah in January, K43 to K12 Sequim in February, L115 to L47 Marina in August, and L116 to L82 Kasatka in October. This makes the current population of the Southern Residents 88, by my count.

Part of L-Pod Returns!

Yesterday we heard the exciting news that many killer whales were southbound from Campbell River on Vancouver Island. We all expected them to be residents, but who? And when would they show up? They had more than a hundred miles to cover to get here by today, but early this morning they were seen of Nanaimo. The buzz among the whale-watch community was incredible this morning. As we left the dock there were still no reports, but we were hopeful.

Shortly into our trip we got the call we were waiting for - that there were whales in Active Pass. Active Pass is a narrow channel in the Canadian Gulf Islands that the orcas often use, but they almost always travel through it from west to east. Today, for the second year in a row, after coming down the inside passage they transited through from east to west - very odd!

The first thing we saw when we got on scene was several big splashes in the distance from breaches. As they continued south towards us I could hardly wait to see who was present. The first whale I identified was the adult male L79 Skana:

I'm totally speculating here, but the whales really seemed as excited to be back to their summer home as we are to have them. They were going crazy as they made their way down Swanson Channel, with multiple breaches, cartwheels, and tail slaps, as well as an occasional spyhop. Here are a few photos that capture the spectacle: the first one is L22 Spirit about to crash down from a breach, the next is a tail slap by L85 Mystery, and the third one is an enthusiastic cartwheel by another L-Pod female:

Whenever the whales first return from a long absence (this part of L-Pod hasn't been seen since February when they made a quick pass through the San Juan Islands), it is always exciting to see who all is there. In addition to figuring out which pods are present, we want to make sure that all members of a family group have returned and see if there are any new calves. The official word isn't in yet as to who was there, but from my photographs I was able to positively ID L12, L22, L25, L41, L73, L79, L85, and L89. From this I concluded that the L12, L5, and L54 family groups were present - a total of up to 19 whales if they were all present. Here is a picture of L73 Flash:

Now the big question is, will they stick around? We sure hope so! And maybe the rest of the Southern Residents will come in soon to meet up with them....J-Pod just stayed for two and a half days on their last short visit, but we expect to be seeing more of them and the other residents any day now.

Surfing, Sea Snakes, and a Superpod

What a day! I worked a double today on the Western Explorer and both our morning and afternoon trips were fantastic. This morning the whales were still split up into two separate groups like they were yesterday afternoon, and we caught up with part of L-Pod with a couple of K-Pod whales as they headed north up Boundary Pass. (This gave me a chance to see for myself who was missing from the encounter we had yesterday afternoon, since these were the whales that were further south yesterday. For those keeping track, this southern-most group included the L5s, half of the L12 group [L41, L77, L94, and L25], K21 and K40, and although we didn't see them, reports were the L2s were in the area as well.)

The first group we followed along was, interestingly enough, three males all together: L73 Flash, L84 Nyssa, and K21 Cappuccino. They were in a very playful mood, spending a lot of time rolling around at the surface. Here is K21 diving with another male upside down behind him with his pec fins in the air:

Here's a look at L73 Flash on the left and the younger L84 Nyssa on the right:

When it comes to orca sexual behavior, as with most dolphins, it seems like the attitude is anything goes. These three males were definitely engaged in some type of sexual activity as evidenced by the large pink "sea snake" this male had exposed:

Here is an angle you don't see to often of an orca with its head completely out of the water as it comes up to breath. This was a male doing an interesting surface lunge as they all frolicked about:

The coolest part of our encounter this morning was seeing the orcas surf in freighter wakes - twice! Right when we got on scene a freighter passed by, and four of the whales swam at top speed through the swells with just their dorsal fins poking through the surface (a behavior we call "sharking) occasionally coming up for a huge full-body lunge. At one point we could even see one whale under the surface in the big wave of the freighter wake. They proved way too fast for me to capture any photos, but right before we left another freighter came by. While I've heard of orcas surfing on freighters I hadn't ever seen it before today - could they possibly do it a second time? They did! This time it was K21 Cappucino and L41 Mega, and although they were a little further away making it hard to pick out the swells of the freighter wake, I was fast enough with the camera this time. Here is one of the males sharking. You can tell how fast he's going by the spray flying off the top of his fin:

L41 Mega did a full body lunge as he played in the freighter wake. It was so cool to see them engaging in such a spectacular play behavior:

When we left the whales this morning, the group of Ks and Ls we were following was heading north towards the southbound Js, Ks, and Ls, and by the time we left the dock for the afternoon trip all three pods had met up - superpod time! We had a little further to travel, but we met up with ALL the whales (all members of all three pods) in the southern end of the Strait of Georgia where they were all spread out and in no hurry to go anywhere.

Whenever we have a superpod the whales are likely to intermix and mingle with one another instead of staying in their immediate family groups like we are most used to seeing them. I was having difficulties identifying the whales we were seeing, and when I came home and looked at my photos I found out why: they were REALLY mixed up! We had a nice pass of one group that included partial family groups from all three pods: J16 Slick and two of her offspring J26 Mike and J42 Echo, K26 Lobo, and L5 Tanya and her nephew L74 Saanich. What an odd group of whales to see all together, but I always find it so interesting who is hanging out together during a superpod. Here are some photos from that pass....these photos were all taken within a minute or two of one another:

Two year-old J42 Echo right behind mom J16 Slick

J26 Mike

There were a couple other whales in this group that I wasn't able to identify, like this young male who may have been J33 Keet. I love this shot because of the reflection of the fin and eyepatch in the water.

L5 Tanya

K26 Lobo just breaking the surface as he comes up for air. I was able to identify this whale because I have a whole sequence of shots that shows his saddle patch and dorsal fin.

There were large groups of orcas spread out for miles all around us. It was a nice, calm afternoon and as the whales weren't in any hurry we got to spend some time just drifting and listening to their blows. The setting couldn't have been better with blue sky and water and a backdrop of the mountains of the mainland in one direction and the US and Canadian Islands to the other direction. There were lots of great photo-ops, like this one of a male surfacing in front of Mt. Baker:

Right before we left we had a nice pass of a male and female, and I wasn't able to figure out who it was at the time. Some of our passengers wanted to know who it was, so I told them I would be able to tell by looking at my photos and that I would post it here on the blog, so here is a photo showing those last two whales, who turned out to be L22 Spirit and her son L79 Skana:

Superpod Split - L-Pod in San Juan Channel!

What an interesting day! Last night a superpod (all members of all three pods) headed north towards the Fraser River, and this morning they were found coming back south down Boundary Pass, a pretty typical route for them. But then a very strange thing happened - most of L-Pod broke off from everybody else and came down some of the inland channels, first through President's Channel and then south through San Juan Channel. It is only about once or twice a season we get resident whales traveling through San Juan Channel, and today was one of those days!

Here's a map to show you what the whales did today. J-Pod, K-Pod, and two small L-Pod family groups took the "normal" route south to the west side of San Juan Island. The rest of L-Pod took the bizarre route:

I was out on the Western Explorer this afternoon and literally all we had to do was pull out of the marina and we could see whales in front of us. The whales were in two groups, and we met up with the lead group, which seemed to be all of the L12 subpod, a group of ten whales, including L12 Alexis and male L85 Mystery:

While it was sunny and clear in Friday Harbor, as we headed south through San Juan Channel we encountered first low-lying clouds and then fog. Check out this Washington State Ferry emerging of the mist with a hazy Mt. Baker in the background:

We continued following the L12s into the fog, and L41 Mega was, as expected, with his sisters and older female L25 Ocean Sun. Here is Mega and one of his sisters, L77 Matia:

After a time we broke off to check out some other wildlife, including harbor seals, a couple of sea bird nesting colonies, a bald eagle nest, and three bald eagles. Then on our way back to Friday Harbor we encountered L-Pod again down at Griffin Bay, and by this time the fog had mostly burned off. After the L12s went by we were able to confirm that most of the rest of L-Pod was present. "The big part of L-Pod", as I call them, spends a lot of time out in the open ocean so we don't see them as much as the other Southern Residents. For this reason, it's always fun to see them.

The L5 and L54 matrilines were there, and several of their members are pictured in the photo below. From left to right we have L100 Indigo (an 8 year-old male), L5 Tanya (a 45 year-old female), an unidentified whale, and L73 Flash (a 23 year-old male). Flash has a wavy dorsal fin and is often confused for J1 Ruffles, but if you look closely he has a notch near the base of his fin that is the sure-fire way to tell them apart:

There are so many big male dorsal fins in L-Pod, which is great to see! I remember not too long ago when we had only 3 breeding age males in the entire population, and its neat to have watched so many young males grow up. Here is L92 Crewser (15 year-old male) surfacing with L84 Nyssa (19 year-old male). You can see that males' dorsal fins don't grow at the same rate, as Crewser is younger but seems to have a taller fin. It's not often you get to make a direct comparison like this!

It wasn't all males, though. We had a small group fo whales come porposing by, including youngster L105 Fluke. It seems like every time I see Fluke he's flying out of the water in some fashion or another. Check out this sequence of him surfacing:

After getting back to port I headed out to the west side of San Juan Island to check on the progress of the southbound J and K Pods. Off Land Bank I got a nice pass by the "real" J1 Ruffles - no notch on this one! He was the closest whale there was to shore - the others were spread out up to several miles offshore.

I heard that L-Pod came out of Cattle Pass and porpoised north to meet up with Js, Ks, and the rest of Ls. The three pods were only separated for a couple of hours but I guess they couldn't wait to meet up again! We've had a superpod going on for days now, and it seems like there are whales everywhere. I know, I know....it's a rough life.

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