Encounter Summary:

The subgoups of J,K and L whales that had gone up to Georgia Strait on 25 September spent the next day in the region of the Fraser River entrance near Vancouver, and also were in that area for much of yesterday before coming back down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca where Ken encountered them today as they were heading out the Strait. Sea conditions were generally good with a four foot swell coming in from the Pacific Ocean. Some whales were foraging as they travelled west in mid-Strait, but no fish scales were observed. A humpback whale was passed by heading west in the Strait near Secretary Island as a US nuclear submarine headed east on the Olympic Peninsula side. L89 and his mom travelled by themselves, and L87 was as usual not far from J2. L94 and her two offspring L113 and L123 were nearby and the entire assemblage was widespread. The trailers and southernmost whales were the L12’s very spread out in mid-Strait. It looks like they are going out to the Pacific Ocean.