Saturday, July 11, 2015

7/9-11/15 Only A Small Group Remained

Thursday-Saturday, July 9-11

Thursday, July 9th

...after hearing the whales over the Lime Kiln, then Orca Sound, and then on Lime Kiln hydrophones until close to midnight last night (Wednesday)...I wondered where they might be today...having come in undetected and staying in Haro Strait for close to five hours...it happened once before when whales showed up and on the hydrophones for hours and hours and the next day they were gone - gone out west...
...and that's just about what happened this time...except today a few stayed...
...and those would Group A Minus (minus the J16s) and the K14s...and they showed up to the north going through Active Pass...
...they came back down in time for one of those orangey sunsets, from the forest fires and a camera issue!
Friday, July 10th
...the whales had gone down island last night and this morning they showed up off Victoria waterfront and they were heading back toward San Juan Island...
...when they came across and up, Granny J-2 and some of the J14s made it to in front of the lighthouse...they appeared to be going after some fish...but they soon turned and went back down island...

...a few hours later, up island they came again...this time Granny J-2 and Lea K-14 traveled past the lighthouse...they looked like they were committed to go north...that lasted about five minutes when they turned and headed back down island...and were last seen somewhere toward the bottom of San Juan Island...

Saturday, July 11th
...this morning...up island they came, same group as yesterday...lately I have been seeing Onyx L-87 way off shore and often by himself, which isn't too unusual...and this morning he was the trailer with Shachi J-19
...just ahead of them were Eclipse J-41 and her baby J-51...
...and on they went...and kept on going...


...if you saw whales today and thought that everything was good...well, it was good that you saw whales...
...if you looked beyond, you would have seen that the 14 whales you saw today are less than 1/4 of the Southern Resident Community of Endangered orcas...
...the rest of them are back out to sea...
...they'll be back when salmon come in...maybe next time there will be enough salmon to keep the whales well fed for longer than a few hours...
...the Fraser River Panel put out their first report of the season...prediction for the numbers of fish to return and then test fishing results, etc...it is very interesting...


Have you watched the Patagonia 7 minute video? The link to it is at the top of the left column.  It's a must watch and then sign the petition and please share this with everyone you know.


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