This time of year can be a difficult one. We must say goodbye to our orca friends for another long whale-less winter of rains, dark skies, and howling winds...BUT! Not before we've had one last goodbye visit. We headed out on the Western Prince today for our buss man's holiday (I think there might have been more naturalists on the boat than guests). The orcas had been down in Puget Sound for the past couple of days and some exciting news came to us this morning. Jeanne Hyde (fellow orca fan) had heard the orcas around 9AM on the hydrophones off Port Townsend. Port Townsend is located at the very top of Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound. The whales were coming north toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands. We actually had a shot to see them, which is pretty hit or miss during this time of year. As we exited the harbor, Captain Peter made a few phone calls. Only one other boat had been out on the water that morning and they weren't having any luck finding the whales. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a BIG body of water, after all. Ok. Shoot. Well, nothing left for us to do except to head out into the strait and join the search. As we exited Cattle Pass we kept our fingers crossed as we quickly dug out binoculars and began to scan the ocean. We could not have had better sighting conditions. The water was glassy and there were almost no other boats out and not a breath of wind. We headed west at first making sure to cover the bottom end of the island and Southern Haro Strait. Nothing. So we decided that our best bet was to turn south and head out toward Hein Bank and try our luck there. Six of us scanned all around in every direction and still we were coming up empty-handed. Once we got out to Hein Bank, we knew we would not be able to search much farther without a promising lead. So Captain Peter decided that the best thing for us to do would be to shut off the boat, put in the hydrophone to listen for orca calls, and give the area a really good stationary look-through. He opened the side window of the boat, unlaced the hydrophone, and tossed it over the side. He then went to the amplifier and clicked it on so that the hydrophone would broadcast on all the speakers around the boat. "EEEEOOOOOOWWWWWEEEEEEEE!!!" We all about jumped out of our skin! There were orcas calls immediately on the hydrophone and they were LOUD, which can only mean they are very close by! We were jumping up and down with excitement, however our excitement soon turned to frustration as we scanned with our binoculars. We couldn't see anything. WHERE WERE THEY!? Suddenly Chris, one of our naturalists, announced that she thought she saw something at our 6 o'clock position. We all trained our binoculars and that's when we saw it! A big, tall, black dorsal fin about two miles away! YAHOO! Good on ya, Chris! We plied as quickly as we could toward them and before long we were hanging out with J pod. They were meandering west slowly under a stunning sky. I think the meeting was bittersweet for all of us. We were so happy to see them, but at the same time we knew that this may be our last encounter for the year. As we traveled along side the orcas, I casually glanced over my shoulder to take a quick check of the other side of the boat. Just as I did so, I saw a BIG back disappear below the surface. What was THAT!? Not an orca... I motioned to Peter enthusiastically and I'm sure he wondered if I was having a fit or something. I finally maneuvered my way around to the open pilot house window and told him that I had just seen something very BIG go down about 300 yards off our starboard side. Again, all seven naturalists trained our eyes and then there they were: POOF! POOF! Two humpback whales! And not just any humpback whales - one of my favorites that we see in the Salish Sea on many occasions - "Split Fin"! So there we were in a wonderful predicament: orcas on our port and humpbacks on our starboard! We thoroughly enjoyed every moment on this rare occurrence!
Before long it was time to head home. The orcas continued west as did the humpbacks and it was time to say goodbye. I took off my camera and snapped it shut in its pelican case. Another season comes to a close and great, big 'thank you' to the orcas for another memorable year...
J34 "DoubleStuf" travels west toward the Pacific:
0 comments:
Post a Comment