{"id":6601,"date":"2017-12-24T16:57:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T00:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=6601"},"modified":"2017-12-24T16:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T00:57:40","slug":"2012-03","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2012-03\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 \u2013 10 People-sized Porpoises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oh look, there\u2019s a dolphin! Just as pigs have wings, it\u2019s not likely a dolphin in the Salish Sea. But there are two porpoise species here, and maybe that\u2019s even better. If you spot a momentary dolphin-like fin, or even a group of them surfacing and then quickly diving, it\u2019s either a Dall\u2019s porpoise or harbor porpoise. Both are about the size of an adult person, but they each act very differently. Dall\u2019s are chunkier and love to ride your bow wave, while the harbor porpoise is much shier. White distinctive spot on the side, dorsal fin and tail? Swims so fast it makes a rooster tail? It\u2019s a Dall\u2019s. More subtly dark gray or black without well-defined spots \u2013 acts like a librarian? Harbor porpoise.<\/p>\n

I drew a sketchbook comparison with orcas for you. Porpoise are much smaller, so when you spot a fin or back, you\u2019ll realize it\u2019s not one of our killer whales. Harbor porpoise were once common throughout Puget Sound, but they are now rarely seen south of Seattle – and no one knows why. I wish they could tell us, but porpoise have many other problems. Clearly an unsustainable number, over 15,000 of them are killed each year when they become entangled in fishing nets!<\/p>\n

Larry paints and blogs about wild places at larryeifert.com. His work can be seen in many national parks across America.<\/p>\n

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Oh look, there\u2019s a dolphin! Just as pigs have wings, it\u2019s not likely a dolphin in the Salish Sea. But there are two porpoise species here, and maybe that\u2019s even better. If you spot a momentary dolphin-like fin, or even a group of them surfacing and then quickly diving, it\u2019s either a Dall\u2019s porpoise or … Continue reading 2012 \u2013 10 People-sized Porpoises<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6453,"menu_order":116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6601","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6718,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6601\/revisions\/6718"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}