Coastal and Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins

On Saturday, November 9th we headed south to Long Beach where we took an afternoon sea life cruise with Harbor Breeze Cruises. With traffic always the big unknown, we got there a bit early, and had an hour or so to bird around the harbor. There were hundreds of western grebes, but I couldn't find a Clark's grebe among them. Other highlights were the brown pelicans, surf scoters, eared grebes, royal terns, and a black phoebe.

As we headed out of Rainbow Harbor aboard the 85' catamaran Triumphant, we passed the Queen Mary and the Queen Mary Dome where the Spruce Goose used to be housed.

Not far out, we passed the buoy where a pair of masked boobies had been regularly seen. Unfortunately, they hadn't seen them in about a week when we were there. I like the California sea lion that found his way to the second level, though:

The sea conditions in the open Pacific where amazingly calm. We ended up going 12 miles offshore, and the whole way it looked like this:

We didn't have to go that far, however, to encounter our first bottlenose dolphins of the day. Just like we have two different kinds of orcas that frequent the Salish Sea, there are two different populations of bottlenose off the California coast: the coastal and the offshore populations. Despite living in such close proximity to one another, they're genetically distinct. Not much is known about them, but we had a naturalist on board who was taking photo ID shots to help a researcher who is trying to estimate the population size of the local dolphins.

Look at all those scars! Click to see a larger version

We encountered four or five different groups of bottlenose throughout the day, including members of both populations. They were all very interested in bow-riding, give us nice close looks, at times from straight above.

It was amazing to see all the scarring not only on the bodies, but the damage to the dorsal fins, which is the main way they ID different individuals. The shapes varied wildly, too, but check out the injuries some of these dorsal fins have sustained:

Distinct notches

Missing the top of the fin

What was really striking seeing the dolphins bow-riding was how big they are: about 10-12 feet long! Way bigger than the Dall's porpoises that bow ride in the San Juan Islands. Of course there's not much to compare them to size-wise in these photos, but I love the way these shots turned out:

 

We saw several calves throughout the day, too. They were quick and hard to catch on camera! This is the only decent shot I got:

 

It's such a special thing to watch cetaceans underwater, in their element. They are such graceful beings, swimming so effortlessly!

In addition to the dolphins, I was hoping to see some pelagic birds out there, but it was surprisingly quiet bird-wise. The most bird activity was when the dolphins were around, and I'm afraid the dolphins took precedence. I did see a single sooty shearwater (190):

Just before our turnaround point we saw some more splashing in the distance. Hoping for Risso's or common dolphins, two species they regularly see in addition to bottlenose, we headed out that way. It turned out just to be more bottlenose dolphins! I was really hoping to see one of the other species, which I haven't ever seen before, but this last group of bottlenose were the most playful of the bunch, and a real treat to see. It was also the biggest group, with maybe about 30 animals.

On our way back, I was keeping an even sharper eye out for birds, and spotted about half a dozen black-vented shearwaters (191, NA life bird 352). It's an even worse picture than of the sooty shearwater, but hey, when it's the first time you've ever seen a bird, you take what you can get!

So concluded our wildlife sightings for our four days in California, as it was time to head back north the next morning. I had to get the camera out on the plane again as we approached Seattle, as the Cascade Mountains were impressive out the east side of the plane:

I think this is Mt. Jefferson? Not sure what that dark line was from.

Mt. Rainier from about 10,000 feet, right before we descended into the clouds above Seattle

First Superpod of the Year!

On the afternoon of July 8th we got the news we had long been waiting for: superpod inbound! For those not familiar with the lingo, this means all three pods (J, K, and L) were coming in from the ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards San Juan Island. The last four weeks have been pretty sparse when it comes to sightings of our Southern Resident Killer Whales. After an amazing stretch of J-Pod encounters in early June, they took off and had been gone for almost a month, which is almost unheard of this time of year. K-Pod hadn't been seen in inland waters at all yet in 2013. L-Pod had made a few brief appearances, but recently the only whales around were the three members of the L22 matriline, which was in itself odd since they usually travel with the rest of the L12 sub-pod. So where are the whales when they're not here? The short answer is that we don't know, other than that they're somewhere on the outer coast in the open ocean where sighting reports are few and far between.

After weeks of hoping and waiting it felt like the summer could finally begin! I was lucky to be able to leave work a little early to go out to the west side of the island, where I arrived at Land Bank's Westside Preserve just as the first few whales did. I proceeded to watch them for the next three hours as they slowly made their way north. Needless to say, they were super super spread out over 10-15 miles or more! They were all pretty far offshore, but it was still a treat to be able to see so many whales, and in the calm waters they were easy to see and also hear. Not all the whales went north, but my estimate is about 60 did, including members of all three pods.

A big lunge from L89 Solstice

Not to be outdone, seconds later J27 Blackberry also lunged

For the last hour or so a group of L-Pod whales was just lazing around in the current, facing south but not really going anywhere against the strong flood tide.

Ahhh....peaceful summer whale-watching

I must admit, it's been a bit hard to watch the entire whale-watching fleet on the three L22s over the previous week. With all the whales back, the boats were spread out with different groups of whales, and for most of the time I was watching, there weren't any boats at all with the whales passing by.

It's thrilling to see the whales up close, there's no doubt about that. But there's something really fulfilling, too, about encounters like this, where they are far away but everything is so peaceful. Some animals were foraging, but others were playful, breaching and tail slapping, simply enjoying each other's company or perhaps just happy to be back in their summer home.

L41 Mega with a freighter and Hurricane Ridge of the Olympic Mountains in the background

Now let's just hope there's enough fish here for the whales to stick around for a while!

Catch of the Day

It was another beautiful October morning that called me outdoors early. With reports of orcas heading in yesterday afternoon I went out to the westside in case they would show up there this morning. No whales, but what it was still more than worth the trip out there.

It was a golden sunrise, and clear in town, but as I got to the middle of the island there was a dense bank of fog stretched across the valley that left me wondering if I would be able to see anything at all in Haro Strait. Amazingly, there was fog over in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Haro was clear, providing this picturesque scene of a purse seiner in the early morning light with the silhouette of the Olympic Mountains in the background:

They soon got to work to try and catch some fish, and I decided to hang out and watch them haul their nets in. I ate my homemade zucchini bread that I brought for breakfast, and then I realized it was going to take them a while with their set, so I decided to walk down and see what sort of wildlife I could see in the meantime. It turns out there were all sorts of other critters fishing this morning too!

The first one I came across was this great blue heron perched on a kelp bed. It caught a gunnel (long, skinny fish) while I was watching. You can see the gunnel in its mouth in this photo:

There were a lot of other birds around too, including many Pacific loons (too far offshore for photos), a few rhinoceros auklets, a red-necked grebe, and a flock of glaucous-winged, Heermann's, and California gulls. This glaucous-winged gull found a sea urchin, but it didn't quite seem to know how to go about eating it:

Then a flock of about 100 common mergansers came out of the cove, and they were  busy diving for fish:

A few more flew in to join the gang:

Offshore a Steller sea lion came to the surface, and closer to shore a young harbor seal foraged under the kelp:

By this time the purse seiner was hauling in its net, but it had drifted further away and almost out of view, so I decided to head down the shoreline a little bit. I stopped where on the way out I had seen a red-tailed hawk feeding on a raccoon carcass (breakfast takes all forms this morning!), and stepped out of my car to watch a second purse seiner haul in its net:

While I was watching, I was startled by a deer that I hadn't seen browsing in a blackberry bush just a few yards from me. An Anna's hummingbird also flew by - what was it having for breakfast?! Possibly sap? While most of our hummers have departed by now, a few hardy souls stick the winter out in the Pacific Northwest. I'm not quite sure how they do it!

Superb Saturday with Js and Ks

Today was a pretty spectacular day to be whale-watching from Lime Kiln Point State Park. After lunch I got to the west side of the island just in time to see J and K Pods pass by heading north. The first two whales I saw were K20 Spock and K38 Comet, and they passed close to shore. There was a gap before the next group of whales came, and in that time I was joined on the rocks by three black oystercatchers:

The next group of whales included some of the J16s as well as J32 Rhapsody. There were also close to shore, swimming just off the kelp. Being mid-afternoon, the whales were silhouetted and it was hard to ID everyone, even from the photos. Sometimes it doesn't matter who is who:

This one is a little more abstract, but I love how it turned out. That's J16 Slick coming up in front:

The whales were definitely taking their time as they moved north, traveling at a slow pace. A few of them seemed to stop and forage north of the lighthouse. Most of them weren't very active, but J32 Rhapsody seemed to be in a bit of a playful mood - here is one of her tail slaps with J16 Slick surfacing in front of her:

Following this group were K21 Cappuccino and K40 Raggedy, then there was another gap before the large trailing group of whales passed by. This last group included the J11s, the J22s, and the J17s - including the three young calves. Here's one of the calves, J47, who already has a big notch in the trailing edge of the dorsal fin. What did he do to get that? It makes him look like his aunt, J28 Polaris, who also has a big nick in the middle of her fin:

Here is J17 Princess Angeline with her calf J44, who will be named at the end of this month. (If you want to help pick the names for four orca calves including J44, you have until the end of August to do so here.)

A couple of big purse seiners drove through, also just off the shoreline and right where the whales were traveling. There are a lot of them out fishing right now during this record salmon season. Some people were upset to see them driving so close to the whales, but there's something odd about how the whales behave around these boats. The orcas have dealt with them for a long time, so perhaps they're used to them? Whatever it is, they certainly don't seem to avoid the seiners, even when they're motoring right where the whales are traveling:

Part of J-Pod in Boundary Pass and at Sunset

I think summer has finally arrived! Today we had sunshine all day and temperatures in the 70s, with more of the same forecast for the next week. It was perfect weather for heading out this afternoon on the Western Explorer, our zodiac-style boat.

On our way north we spotted several bald eagles hanging out on a small rocky island. A closer look revealed that they had a carcass they were feeding on, shown here at the feet of the left eagle.

Up in Boundary Pass we met up with part of J-Pod (for the last little while the Js have been traveling in two separate groups). Again some of the older whales were in the lead, and again they were fairly active. We saw a couple of cartwheels from J1 Ruffles, a distant breach and a spyhop by J8 Spieden, and a couple of breaches by J2 Granny. I'm not positive, but this may well be her:

A little later before heading home we had a nice closer pass by J8 Spieden, who is distinct with her comparatively short, stubby dorsal fin.

What do I want to do after spending a day at work, part of which was on the water on the sunshine watching whales? Enjoy some more sunshine and watch some more whales, of course. We headed out to Land Bank on the westside of the island where bait fish were jumping all over the place. There were so many of them it was even possible to get some photos!

I wasn't the only whale nut - some other Western Prince employees showed up too - just in time to see the same group of J-Pod whales that I saw earlier in the day head south in the golden sunset lighting. They were a little ways offshore but it was incredibly peaceful to listen to their breathing and watch their dark silhouettes break the calm surface of the water. One whale breached four times:

I liked this photo that captured the moment whale. An adult male whale continues south down the strait, a freighter heads north, and the Olympic Mountains catch the last of the sunlight in the background:

Ahhh....it finally feels like summer is here!!

Living Off the Land ~ Industry of the North

Alaska is a big state, and it can be hard to comprehend just how big. It is more than twice the size of Texas, and more than a fifth as big as all the lower 48 put together. It has more than 50% of the US coastline. In total, it is 586,412 square miles and has a population of just 698,473. With so few people and so much space, it was nice not only to see true wilderness but to also see how much of Alaska's land is protected. This graphic from The Nature Conservancy shows the conservation management status of Alaska's lands. You can click on it to see the larger version, but the gist of it is that lands that are any shade of green have the highest levels of conservation management in place. This includes about 43% of the state. (Orange lands are undesignated and have no specific conservation mandates.)

My posts mostly featured the beauty and wildlife of Alaska, as seen in many of these protected lands, but I thought it would be appropriate to show some of the other sides as well.

One of the biggest industries in Alaska is tourism. No where is that more apparent than in the towns of southeast Alaska where there are docks for multiple cruise ships. Each ship dwarfs the town beside it and often flood the streets with more tourists than the total year-round population of the town. Many local businesses open and close based on the arrival and departures of the cruise ships, which can have them running some odd hours. Here are two ships that were in port in Ketchikan.

Aside from tourism, and especially in the interior or more remote lands, Alaskans often make their living directly off the land. Many of these issues are controversial, especially when it comes to issues of conservation and native rights. I won't comment too much one way or the other here, but from what I read and heard harvesting - whether it be trees, fish, or oil - is often highly managed and takes many different interests into consideration.

In Homer, we saw this fisherman filleting an impressive 210 pound halibut. It wouldn't be big enough to win one of the popular local fishing derbies, but it still drew congratulations from visitors and locals alike.

For much of our drive along the Alaska Highway we followed the 800-mile long Trans-Alaska Pipeline which carries oil from Prudhoe Bay to the terminus in Valdez, the northern most port that doesn't ever freeze. We saw one tanker filling up when we passed the oil station in Valdez:

It was interesting to see the pipeline up close, too. The big beams under the pipeline as shown in the photo below allow it to shift without breaking, whether minor moves from frost heaves or from something more major like an earthquake.

When in Anchorage I met up with an old friend that now works in the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, and it was interesting to hear about the strict environmental codes and regulations they have in place up there to minimize their impact. He actually said Prudhoe Bay was the cleanest and one of the most environmentally-friendly towns he had ever seen. It was actually kind of reassuring to hear about all the strict protocols they had for operations on the land-side of the US oil industry. If only such practices and plans had been properly utilized in the Gulf of Mexico.