By this time of the year we are usually seeing J Pod on a daily basis. Not this year. They were in the area last Friday and Saturday, after being absent for almost 5 weeks. (During that time we were seeing a lot of Transients, the mammal eating Killer Whales.)
Then they disappeared for two more days and but returned yesterday. And now they are gone today. Last night they were headed west toward the Pacific, which is one of the places they "vanish" to from time to time. Why? We don't know for sure, but it's likely that they are looking for a good supply of food, which for them is Salmon, not seals and other marine mammals.
And that brings me to the issue of the state of our salmon. Not good!
Officials have banned salmon fishing in all of Oregon and California due to the lowest numbers of returning Salmon in memory. The stocks of salmon have crashed in those states due in large part to policies of our federal government. They have allowed the building of dams, clear cutting of water sheds that flow into spawning streams, pollution in countless forms, and a century of overfishing.
And DICK CHENEY!
Yes, Bushie VP Dick Cheney, the master of darkness, one of the chief architects of the Iraq War, perhaps the worst expression of U.S. policy since slavery. His fingerprints are all over the largest kill of salmon in the history of the world in the Klamath River in 2002. (www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/27/18431074.php
If we don't restore salmon stocks, many feel that our local killer whales are doomed. No less than Ken Balcomb, the #1 expert in the world on our resident orcas, feels that is true.
And why don't we ban salmon fishing in this area?
More in the next blog.
Capt. Jim
mayaswhalewatch.biz
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