Post-Potlatch

Among the Southern Resident Killer Whales, there is a matriline that has become adopted by the Samish Indian Nation. This matriline is in J-pod and the newest member has been named today. J-49 has been named T’ílem Ínges (pronounced “tēēlem ēēnges”), which means "singing grandchild" in the Samish language.

This naming ceremony was part of a potlatch--which is basically a gift-giving festival practiced in the Pacific Northwest and Canadian coastal tribes. There is a long history of potlatches (and the subsequent banning by both the Canadian and American governments) among the  native peoples of this area. 

As the nicknames of the whales are given out by the Whale Museum, Whale Museum staff was invited to this ceremony--and I was lucky enough to be granted an invitation!

Before the potlatch there was a canoe blessing ceremony--the canoes were given names and were then paddled around by members of the tribe.

After the canoe ceremony, there was a big potluck (also part of the potlatch) and then the naming ceremony began. Despite being reassured that it was okay to take pictures, I only took a few (and none of them were too good).

The naming ceremony itself incited many emotions in me. For one, it was a fascinating look into the blossoming culture of the Samish. Though I fully admit, I did not do much research before the ceremony, throughout the entire event, it was mentioned how the Samish lost most of their culture and were slowly regaining it. It was really touching when the elders leading the ceremony mentioned that they hoped that their young ones would grow with T’ílem Ínges and bring new meaning and life into the Samish Nation. At times it did seem to drag on, and there definitely could have been more projecting of voices (sometimes it was a little hard to hear the speakers!), but all in all, it was a truly enjoyable and memorable expereience. 

Whale I'll be darned

I went on Soundwatch today, and boy oh boy did I see a lot of whales! It started off with seeing J pod and part of L pod as they were doing the West Coast Shuffle.

The West Coast Shuffle is when the Orcas go up and down the west coast of San Juan Island looking for salmon. There are three pods in the San Juan Islands, J pod, K pod, and L pod. They are what are known as Southern Resident Killer Whales and J, K, and L pod are considered endangered. But aren’t Orcas around the world doing well, Sarah, you may ask. How can these be considered endangered?

My friends, I shall tell you: there is not one type of killer whale, but three. They are called transients, offshores, and residents. Resident killer whales are whales that live in a particular area. The whales here are Southern Residents, which mean they go up a little bit into Canada, but don’t really go anywhere else, except for the ocean to follow salmon. The point is they mainly stay here: in the San Juan Islands. These Southern Residents only eat fish and were some of the most heavily hit by the captures for SeaWorld and aquariums during the 1960s and ‘70s. About a third of the population was taken away, and since Southern Residents only interact with Southern Residents, there are now only 83 whales where there used to be around 200. This is why they are endangered.

Eric, leader of Soundwatch

Among the whales, there are also transients and offshores. Transients are the killer whales that eat marine mammals, such as other whales, seals, porpoises, etc., etc. They travel in small groups all around. Transients are probably the reason why killer whales are called killer whales. Offshores are pretty much a mystery. They live, as the name implies, offshore and not much research has been done on them. It is thought that they might eat sharks, though. This is determined by the wear and tear on their teeth when the rare offshore body is found.

And now a pretty island

But back to Soundwatch today: the killer whales were not the only whales present: I also saw a humpback. It was so cool! My camera was acting up, but I managed to get a few shots. I also saw the flukes of the tail, but my camera would not cooperate, so you will unfortunately not get to see that magnificent sight. But it was awesome!

All in all, I spent about 8 hours on the water today. WOW.

The Return of J pod

J pod returned today! It was all set up as a slow day in the office (it’s mailing season, so we were stuffing envelopes)—then Melissa, one of the other interns, got a text—the whales were back! Melissa, Kate, and I all piled into Melissa’s car and we were off for Lime Kiln!

Kate and Melissa, waiting with bated breath

 We got there right in time—with just a little bit of waiting, the whales appeared! I was caught unawares, so I only had my cell phone, but I managed to capture some of the great antics that were happening.

Lime Kiln is so pretty...

Whales Ahoy!

Today was a super busy day! I woke up early because the students of the Marine Naturalist Training Program were graduating and in honor of this, the class had rented a whale watch boat—and I was invited! Despite my earlier luckiness in seeing J-pod, there were no orcas today. But there were plenty of sea lions, seals and even a Minke!

Harbor seals

Steller sea lions

Minke whale!

Minke whales are baleen whales which mean they have no teeth, only a filtering system made out of keratin, the same protein that makes up our hair and fingernails. They scoop up lots of water and small animals, such as ghost shrimp and krill, and then filter it out. However baleen is pretty hard to clean, so Minke whales have a nickname—stinky Minkes. Once you get a whiff, you can never forget. This can be smelled whenever a Minke comes up for air.

Look at the view!

Friday Harbor from the boat

After the trip was done, Kate and I were immediately carted off to the next part of our internship—Soundwatch. Soundwatch is an organization run by the Whale Museum that monitors and records boaters around whales as well as provides information for them.  J-pod was out today, so we had quite a busy day speeding around in our boat and informing people of the proper way to view whales. On our downtime, I even managed to get a few shots, but due to my lack of a telescoping lens, you have to make with zooming in on the photographs themselves. The upside-down black 'v's are the dorsal fins.

This one's a little blurry, but if you look where the blue changes to light blue (in the center), you can see an Orca rolling over to show its flipper!

This one's in the center, right at the line where the dark blue turns to light blue

This is a couple of them, also on the center line where the blue changes color

We spent four hours out there, before heading back to our docking ground. It was quite lovely but the one thing I would have changed was to put sunscreen on my ears! They’re all sunburned!

The day ended, as most have so far on this island, with exhaustion and falling into bed early. I think I’m still a bit jet-lagged and it shows!

Welcome to Friday Harbor

So after a harrowing 27-28 hours of travel, I finally made it to Friday Harbor. I will refrain from telling you the harrowing tale of sleeping in a strange airport, the unnatural taste of strong coffee, and a leaking shampoo bottle, but know that I really am not fond of airports. Next time I'm getting a non-stop flight!

Everyone I've talked to about this trip has mentioned how much the scenery is astounding, breath-taking and a variety of other positive verbs. I am very sorry to admit that rather than look at the scenery all around me, I was out like a light the entire ride to the ferry.

So, I hopped on the ferry and what did I see but cormorants! I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my previous travel blog about Japan, but when I went to Uji, I got to see the fishing cormorants used in ceremonies. These were certainly much freer that the ones before!

So, the ferry was taken and soon we arrived at Friday Harbor, the place I'm working this summer! We were met by Cindy, my boss, and taken to our new home where we met our landlord and got groceries. But who is this 'we,' you ask. There is actually another intern called Kate who is working in another program but staying at the same house. It was practically serendipity that we met--we didn't know each other but we met at the airport and were on the same ferry! After the house, we quick stopped by the whale museum to take a look at what was in store for us. I'll go into detail in a later post, but what I've seen is STUPENDOUS!

And look at that marvelous sign!

Then Cindy got a call -- the whales were moving inward towards the shore! We jumped into the car and raced towards Lime Kiln point. There, we waited with bated breath...and waited...and waited.

While waiting, I took pictures

And then we saw them! They were in resting mode, which means that they had half their brains turned off and so were periodically bobbing up and down to get air, but weren't really active. It was amazing. Kate and I had only been on the island for under two hours and we had already seen whales. It was spectacular!

Unfortunately, my battery had died, so there are none of my photos of whales. I may grab some from the others who were photographing as well and add them in. But it was amazing.