9:10 AM: Thanks to Donna Sandstrom of The Whale Trail for the tip: “J Pod is exiting Colvos Passage, heading north, We will be at Alki, south of the lighthouse, with binoculars to share.” (Colvos Passage is the waterway along the west side of Vashon Island.)
9:37 AM: Donna says they’re now visible from there.
10:22 AM: Update from Donna – they’re moving fast and now out of sight. She says local researchers Mark Sears and Maya Sears are with them.
While cross with WSF at 08:15 on 11/5, the captain made an announcement “folks if you look off the starboard bow at 15 degree (roughly the 2 o’clock position) you’ll see a pod of orcas. He slowed the vessel down to a crawl. This was a treat! Thank you WSF for this.
They spent the weekend in Quartermaster Harbor! Saw some really great photos. Nobody remembers seeing Orcas in the harbor before. Probably chased some seal snacks there!
J-pod did something really unusual yesterday. They entered Quartermaster Harbor (between Vashon and Maury Islands) around noon, and stayed there until 7:30 this morning.
It’s rare for them to go into the harbor – last time was 2015 we think? – and even more rare for them to stick around. Observers said the whales were breaching, playing and hunting.
Why did they go in to the harbor? Likely they found a good supply of salmon or other fish.
In 2005 members of L pod followed a salmon run into Dyes Inlet near Bremerton and stayed there for nearly a month. (Read more about that in Chris Dunagan’s article “Dyes Inlet Orcas, Ten Years Later” https://bit.ly/3QvdbID )
There are 25 orcas in J pod, including 4 calves under 5 years old. Whatever their reason, a good mystery for now.
Several of us spent almost 2 days with Jpod.The first day they came down and passed Pt Robinson and then in a bizarre turn of events – went into quartermaster harbor. In 2015 they didn’t go deep in the harbor like they did on Sunday. This was watching history unfolding.Their behavior in QMH is unprecedented. None of us have ever seen this before including the five researchers that were out with them. Mark, Maya, Candi, Brad and Jeff.They were not foraging at all. They traveled back and forth, west and east across the harbor maybe 400 yards at a time in a cohesive group, not allowing any pod members outside of the group. Then there was the tail slapping. One would tail slap and then several more would do it and it would go on for several minutes. This went on into the night . There was so much energy expenditure; without any energy intake over almost 24 hours. It was shocking to see how fast they exited the harbor in the morning after all the energy they spent.We first thought perhaps and it was a birth but then as the hours stretched on it was too long for that, or maybe somebody is sick.The surface activity stopped overnight and started up again around 4:00 a.m.These weren’t ordinary tail slaps. They were, for a lack of a better word very aggressive appearing. Something was definitely going on and something was definitely being communicated, what that was, right now remains a mystery. We are all scratching our heads.J27 was in the rear most of this 2 adventure including yesterday – miles behind the rest of the group as they passed West Point. He does have a bit of a wheeze going on, but his travel and surfacing appeared normal and he is not thin. NOAA was out and we were out on Soundwatch on Sunday as well.They also had some odd behavior around boats. They surrounded the phoecina – a boat they are used to. They often avoid them, or ignore them And I do believe they recognize certain researchers by face. They also went up to a boat that was moored in the harbor, They approached it in a line very slowly and kind of side-eyed it and circled it. We have some great footage and documentation over this two-day stretch I will try to post here. It was magical and humbling to be present during this mind-boggling and unprecedented experience.
Here is the only clip of them leaving Quartermaster harbor around 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning from Brittany who was the only person present. What a gift
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzUiPgbv_lz/?igshid=enN0OXo0anMzbmN5
Thank you so much for sharing this with is here, I felt like I was there, beautifully put.All mammles have three lobes to the brain, orcas have four…As humans, we could not fathom the complexities of these amazing creatures, but I have a feeling they could teach us all a lot.I appreciate your comment, thank you for taking the time to report to us!
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