Sunday, June 2, 2013

6-2-13 The Sunshine Stayed and So Did the Whales

Sunday, June 2nd
...off to the park as the whales came down island early this morning...after some passed by at the lighthouse there was a lull...the hydrophones were silent...was everyone else miles from shore?...and then someone breached!...thank you very much Rhapsody J-32!...and more came along behind her...
...a few hours later, out on Maya's Westside Charters as we reached the whales they were beginning to head back up island...they sure haven't been staying down island for any length of time...they were spread in groups and for a while taking their time...over the last several days there has been lots of activity in the kelp beds...salmon hiding places I presume...


...as they were about a mile from the lighthouse some began to porpoise...
...some of the J17s were putting on the speed!
...Polaris J-28 above and her offspring Star J-46 below...

...by the afternoon the whales had made it up to Open Bay, just outside of Snug Harbor...makes it really neat when we come off the dock and just outside the harbor are the whales...
...a group of playful kids...Teeth showing!...maybe they were sharing a salmon...we hope...

...the whales began to move on and these kayakers, who were doing just what they were supposed to do, got quite a treat!
...they continued on up island while those kayakers were exclaiming about what they just saw!...yes, she looks much closer than she really is to them, but that's probably close enough...
...the whales continued to be spread out...Skana L-79 was up ahead of his mom...I had to show you the beautiful day it was...

...no telling where the rest of the L12s were...up ahead I think...the L12s kids were mixed in with J pod whale kids earlier in the day, so who knows who was in this pile of kids at play...
...we heard there was a humpback not far...so off we went to see...
...why it's BCY0324 and she's been around for at least a week now!...notice the browish color in the water...it reminded me of the water in the Strait of Georgia that just about always has that...but not here...what was it?...I asked Simon of Ocean Ecoventures and Ivan of the Western Prince and found out that it is an algae bloom...here's a link to read more about it...
...the humpback turned into Spieden Channel...I had already called the folks at Lonesome Cove Resort...nobody was home!!! oh, no...and look...right by their dock!
...very cool...
...if J pod continues to find food and the L12s too, then they 'should' be around...it's just that sometimes we don't always know exactly where they are all the time...can't wait til tomorrow :)



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