Two more gray whales have come in from the ocean to join our “Sounders” so far in 2021.
On Monday our boats from Port Townsend and Edmonds found two returning “newbie” gray whales that might have come in with the rough seas from Sunday’s wind storm. CRC 2356 was the first returning newcomer we spotted, associating with veteran sounder CRC44, Dubknuck. 2356 was first documented in Puget Sound in 2020 and he spent much of the summer feeding at the Snohomish River Delta.
Later we spotted another returning newcomer, CRC2255, hanging out with CRC53, Little Patch. CRC2255 was first seen in our area in 2019. This is exciting news that more of our “newbies” from 2019 and 2020 are returning for some springtime feeding in the sound.
This should bring our number of gray whales that have shown up this year to about 14 now! Enjoy a few pictures from Sunday and Monday.
Photographer/ Naturalist Bart Rulon
