Hello, It’s me... again, and yes I’m sorry but not sorry I’m going to talk about salmon and their connection to Southern Resident Orcas again. Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) eat fish and 80% of their diet is one species of fish: Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and yes before you ask they definitely tell the difference. It’s probably not because of their refined palate, but perhaps, it’s more likely due to their incredible echolocation abilities to determine between different species of fish and Chinook also happen to be the largest salmon species here. The reason that we see the SRKWs here is because historically the Salish Sea/Puget Sound area and it’s river systems held salmon all year round in large numbers. We see these Orcas more often in the summer months because that’s when large “runs” of salmon swim through this inland sea to swim up the rivers that they were born in to complete their life cycle and lay their eggs. This summer with an extremely low salmon fishery we have only seen the SRKWs around once a month. J pod and L pod mostly seem to come through and do a lap of the islands searching for fish. Catching some and then heading back out to the open ocean soon after. Whether they are following denser “waves” of Chinook salmon swimming towards the rivers or just doing expeditionary searches once a month, I’m not sure, but it’s always cool to see them.
This Wednesday (August 3, 2016) Captain Pete, Lauren, and I headed south to meet the Southern Residents as they came into the Salish Sea once again. We met a small group of whales just south of Lime Kiln Lighthouse. It was Onyx and few others, foraging for salmon off of the intense drop off that is the west side of San Juan Island. After awhile we left them be and headed further north to where the rest of J pod was hanging out by Kellett Bluffs on Henry Island. We stayed and watched the J17s: Princess Angeline (J17) and her calf (J53), Polaris (J28), and her new calf J54, and the rest of them Talequah (J35), Notch (J47), Star (J46), and Moby (J44). They were tightly packed and super playful. We got to see a lot of the learning patterns of the two new calves J53 and J54 as they repeated everything their mothers and siblings did, whether it was swimming or breaching or diving or cartwheeling, or spyhopping. This all happened as the sun was setting too. The rest of J pod was spread out around this tip of Henry Island and soon moved closer and closer together to swim up north once again as we said farewell. Here’s to more salmon and more whales. Hope you have a great day and think about ways to help these cool creatures or any others!
Until next time,
Naturalist Erick
M/V Sea Lion
