Content about The Dorsal Spin

Like bears emerging from hibernation, we are a bit grumpy and out of sorts at Chez VHP. Papa Bear has a busted eye tooth that requires an extraction or a root canal. This tooth is one of the most examined and x-rayed choppers in the world! Papa Bear is inclined to have it pulled so he can just be done with it. Baby Bear Nashoba is on constant vigil for the stinky otters who are trying to den under her porch. Mama Bear is bummed out, wishing for a moratorium on the deaths of loved ones and cultural icons.

Once again, our venerated Southern Resident killer whales provided much material for this news cycle. Prospective subject matter for this column included “Resident orcas penetrate Quartermaster Harbor for the first time in recent memory,” or “Late breaking: L Pod matrilines off West Seattle.”

This morning, I watched a seal pup casually floating on her back, with hind flippers flexed, drifting gently in a Salish Sea current. A few gulls kept her company. On Vashon-Maury, we can expect to see Harbor seal pups – newborns and “weaners” --into early October. Chez VHP’s summer travel schedule interrupted our work as stranding responders and delayed dissemination of our annual Seal Pup 101 information.

The weeks around Mother’s Day, the first one after my mother’s death, bordered on unbearable this year. Distraught and preoccupied were the operative modes. On May 18, I was on a major bummer -- profoundly sad and missing my mother intensely. Odin, Nashoba and I did what we typically do for relief: seek refuge in Mother Nature. We went outside to take in the early evening vista -- the thunderclouds over Tahoma, the acrobatics of our Rufous and Anna’s Hummingbird families, the smell of salal, and . . .

Matriarchy and mortality are recurring themes in my Loop articles. Typically, I attempt to decipher the potential ramifications of births and deaths in Southern Resident orca matrilines. I fret most about the impact on surviving podmates when mature, elder females die. In 2015 thus far, I have been preoccupied with the untimely demise of my own mother. I am struggling to make sense of how Mom’s surviving “podmates” will get by without her.

On December 26, 1995, Mark Sears spent the day tracking an elusive J Pod. With his own children in tow, Mark and the Sears Pod circumnavigated Vashon-Maury. Near Blake Island, the Sears Pod finally caught up with J Pod. Tucked in delicately with Tahoma’s gorgeous family, the J10 matriline, was an adorable “spanker” – a term of endearment for a newborn. The baby orca snuggled up to her lovely mother, Ewok (J20). That baby was Rhapsody (J32), and she was radiant.

In observance of Native American Heritage Month, we -- Orca Annie and Odin Lonning -- will present “THE SACRED WHALE: Requiem for Ruffles (J1),” on Thursday, November 20, at 7:00 PM in the Vashon Land Trust Building. Though we will provide an update on the status of our endangered Southern Resident killer whales, we intend for this year’s talk to be primarily a loving reflection on Ruffles and other Resident orcas, past and present.

At Chez VHP the other day, we heard loud bleating through an open window. We popped outside to ascertain who the unhappy camper was. A few feet from shore, a newborn Harbor Seal pup paddled frantically and yowled for Mom. Mama was away from Baby, and l’enfant did not like that at all. Fortunately, Mother Seal responded promptly to her needy youngster – crisis averted.

Since the Southern Residents left us in January, Vashon-Maury waters have been drearily devoid of tall dorsal fins. That changed on April 4, when ten or more Transient killer whales blazed down the Sound from Edmonds. In East Passage, NOAA researchers clocked one male in the group, T102, at 12 km per hour. A solitary female dragged a seal for 20 minutes. What became of the hapless seal is unclear.

I write this on the sorrowful anniversary of Tsu’xiit/Luna’s death. Hail pounds the roof, as it did on the day Luna died. Tsu’xiit left his earth swim during a freaky, powerful thunderstorm. Killed on March 10, 2006 at the tender age of 6½, luminous Luna (L98) – enchanting film star of “The Whale” and “Saving Luna” – has been dead now longer than he was alive.

The first daughter of matriarch Skagit (K13), she was born in 1986. She has three siblings and a nephew: brother Scoter (K25), born 1991; sister Deadhead (K27), born 1994, and her son K44, born 2011; and brother Cali (K34), born 2001. She has a tall dorsal fin for a female, and researchers thought she might be a “he” until – surprise – Mark Sears and I saw Spock (K20) in Colvos Pass with her newborn son Comet (K38) on December 22, 2004.

Transient killer whales have been roaming around lower Puget Sound as if they own the joint, and their presence seemingly affects our Southern Residents. This December, Transients are circumnavigating Vashon-Maury, slinking freely through Colvos and Dalco Passages. Thus far, Residents have avoided these areas. In all Resident encounters to date, the orcas changed direction in East Passage.