Wandering whales
What a classic field day. Leslie relayed news that she was hearing calls early in the day. But as we caught up with them, muliple factors conspired to deny us high-quality data (in the way they often do in field research). First we would be near a whale, but it wouldn’t be vocalizing. Then a noisy ship would approach as the orcas started to call. When the ship would pass and the calls would be frequent, the wind would rise, blow us down wind, and cause the cables to “thrum.” We’d trouble shoot the flow noise and be ready to record, when the waves would build extremely. Suddenly, enforcement agents (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) would swing over to ask us some questions — distracting us from our quarry.
It was a very long day, but in the end we all gained some new insights. We were lucky the killer whales turned back when it seemed they were headed out to the big ocean! And then we were treated to the near-silent underwater noise from Bob McLaughlin’s jet-drive powered boat, quite a few nice calls and clicks, and stunning silhouettes of a resting (quiet) pod traveling up Haro Strait on the flood tide.
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