Encounter Summary: 

Jeanne Hyde called Dave at home in the morning to say that she was hearing J pod and a few K pod calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophone. She called back a little later to report that she was seeing J pod whales heading north at Lime Kiln and K pod whales were sighted farther south. Dave then headed over to CWR. Since Haro Strait was windy and rough, we waited for the whales to make it to CWR and then watched and photographed them from the porch first. After the whales passed the house, Dave and Barbara Bender went down to Snug Harbor and left aboard Orca at 1318. We got on scene at 1327 off north Kellett Bluff. The whales were spread out in groups and the seas were still lumpy. We headed toward the outside leaders and first found J26 and K13 fooling around with one another. We stayed with them very briefly before moving on to the inshore leaders who were just passing Battleship Rock. The leaders were the J19's who were spread out a little and moving north fairly fast. There was a steady breeze blowing out of Spieden Channel and we experienced our worst seas of the day here. The rest of the J16's were behind the J19's and they were also loosely spread with J50 and J52 zipping along in sloppy seas and being almost impossible to photograph. J17 and J35 were behind the J16's and then J44, J47, J31, and J39 were spread out offshore of them.The trailers were a bit offshore and were spread out in larger groups so we headed out and back there to find more K pod whales. We found the J14's and the K12's were behind them. The K16's and J2 with L87 were also nearby. Other whales that ended up being the K14's, K13's, and J22's were behind them.The whales continued north, spread out in singles and groups. Most of the whales moved over to the Stuart Island shoreline and headed slowly along the rocks with leaders in singles and small groups and the trailers in large loose groups. After passing Turn Point, the whales pointed toward Swanson Channel still spread out in groups. Near the south end of Swanson Channel, the leaders slowed down and appeared to be waiting for the trailers and several whales were floating around and staying near the surface. We left the whales still heading north spread out in groups at the south end of Swanson Channel at 1600. We saw all the members of K pod and there were no new calves or missing whales.

Notes-Comments:photos are cropped