Beam Reach

Mating Seals

This note from Tim was published in the email notices sent out by Orca Network.

Hi Susan,

My name is Tim Hunt and I’m an Australian student on the Beam Reach
program studying killer whale acoustics and behaviour with Scott and Val
Veirs. We came across something a couple of days ago that apparently, is
rarely witnessed in the waters around the San Juan Islands.

At mid-morning on Tuesday 28th August we were travelling south out of
Roche Harbor aboard the Gato Verde catamaran when we noticed off the
starboard bow what we thought was a dead harbor seal floating in the
water. We turned the boat around and upon approaching the seal it did not
move, we got closer and I noticed it was in fact two seals, one laying on
top of the other. Still no movement as we pulled up right alongside the
seals but then they both opened their black beady eyes and just turned
their heads and looked at us as if to say “Do you mind?”. Still holding on
to each other tightly they slowly sank beneath the surface of the water
and down out of our sight.

Now we’ve been informed by our onboard PhD seal expert that most pinnipeds
are land breeders and the harbor seal is one of only a few species that
are aquatic breeders. The seal on top appeared too large to be a juvenile
as both of them were relatively the same size, and pups are weaned at
about one month anyway. So attached is a photo and we thought people might
like to view a rare sight of harbor seals in “action”. Enjoy!

Cheers, Tim Hunt on behalf of the Beam Reach
team

Bowriding porpoises and killer whales spyhopping

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

After breakfast at Snug, the Gato Verde sailed south along San Juan Island. We heard rumors on the radio that J pod was offshore, so we headed towards Victoria. We found a tight formation of killer whales and deployed the hydrophone array. There was lots of spyhopping, as well as occasional breaches and tail slaps. We followed the group of orcas back towards shore and caught up with them again near Lime Kiln. Their formation had broken up slightly and the killer whales were more spread out. We continued south to False Bay, taking a number of different recording of killer whale vocalizations, before turning around to head back to Snug Harbor where we would meet up to head for a talk at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor. On our way back up north along the coast, Elise spotted a small pod of Dall’s porpoises and we all watched from the bow as a number of individuals took advantage of the Gato Verde for some bowriding pleasure.