...first seen this morning by Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research...he called some friends who then called me...I went 'running' and was able to get some first looks from shore...which soon turned into closer looks from their boat...
...at first the Pacific White Sided dolphins were heading down island, but soon turned and headed north...and then...
...and they had a visitor - wild!!
...the black line is our boat track for the first part of the encounter...
...but soon...
...soon we heard there were other visitors in the area...
...the PWSs were near D'Arcy Island, maybe 3 miles out from Open Bay and Kellett Bluff...Spencer left the Ts and went over to keep an eye on the PWSs...he was on the radio letting us know what they were doing - they were staying in that area...Ken was interested to see if the PWSs would change their behavior, perhaps due to detecting the Transients...
...the Ts were not showing any signs of moving toward the PWSs, BUT when they reached the area just about directly across from each other (apx. 3 miles apart) the PWSs began to...
...so I wonder if that stampede (my term) was caused because they heard the Ts and got the heck out of there...or maybe that's just the way they travel...
...since the internet was still not working enough to have the hydrophones streaming, we may not ever know if the PWSs detected Transients' calls, but perhaps they detected them in another manner...and I imagine those 200+ PWSs were making lots of sounds (see a previous post for their calls)
...what a day!...
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