Support Your Vashon Whale Geeks

At Loop deadline, orcas have been absent from Vashon–Maury waters in October 2011. Before Seattle media outlets declare prematurely that the Southern Residents have returned to lower Puget Sound, they should do some good, old-fashioned fact-checking.

Southern Residents visited Island waters just twice in October 2010. November arrival would be well within normal limits. As we await the return of J, K and L Pods, this is an opportune time to rally our VHP supporters.

In August, King County’s senior ecologist asked if I could provide a summary describing how orcas use Vashon-Maury waters, dating from 2005 when the Southern Residents were declared endangered. Compiling this Vashon Hydrophone Project data was simultaneously rewarding, illuminating, and disheartening. Revisiting the last encounters with Lummi (K7), Ruffles (J1), Everett (J18) and other dearly departed orcas was bittersweet. The sense of reward derives from the high quality of information the VHP has collected, despite limited resources.

Accuracy matters; the survival of the Southern Residents is at stake. VHP associate Mark Sears and I take great pains to ensure that our sightings are correct. Our independently maintained VHP killer whale dataset contains no misidentified Dall’s porpoises or flippers of thermoregulating sea lions. We purge anecdotal, unsubstantiated information -- "Sally told Johnny she thought she saw orcas from the ferry" is not a datapoint. If a sighting is unverifiable, Mark and I do not count it as data. VHP recordings, ID photos, and other data such as prey samples reinforce our Vashon-Maury sightings.

Dear readers, you make this high quality level possible. Vashon people know Vashon best. The VHP is the only whale conservation effort with a physical presence on Vashon–Maury. Our Island is replete with naturalists, birders, and other keen observers of nature. Your direct reports to the VHP at 463-9041 vastly improve our dataset for Vashon-Maury waters. We glean the best information by talking to you, and from your detailed messages when we are unavailable to answer the phone. In speaking with you, we can quickly determine what species you see if you are uncertain. Many seal pup issues can be resolved by phone without disturbing the cute boo-boos.

When reporting a sighting to the VHP, the following information is helpful: date; time; location; species description, such as color or markings, size, number of animals, height of dorsal fins; travel direction and speed; are the whales spread out or tightly grouped? Particularly relevant for killer whale sightings: how many boats are near the orcas? Visit our Vashonorcas.org page for a reminder of what to include in a VHP sightings report. The Cetacean Fact Sheets at www.acsonline.org are an excellent resource for cetacean identification.

Thanks to Bob for sending seal photos, and to others who called about young seals hauled out on our beaches. Expect the "weaner" seals to choose awkward places to rest; e.g., in front of the Point Robinson lighthouse.

At the risk of being redundant . . . Please support the work of the Vashon Hydrophone Project (VHP): REPORT LOCAL WHALE SIGHTINGS ASAP TO 463-9041. Reporting directly to the VHP sustains an ongoing, accurate dataset of whale sightings for Vashon-Maury and contiguous Central Puget Sound waters, initiated more than 30 years ago by researcher Mark Sears. Call the VHP about seal pups as well as dead, injured, or sick marine mammals on Island beaches. Check for updates at www.Vashonorcas.org and send photos to Orca Annie at Vashonorcas@aol.com.