Encounter Summary:

On the 19th of October (Encounter 114) J and K pods came east past Race Rocks in a very spread out formation and continued toward Admiralty Inlet by nightfall. On the 20th of October they were seen all day and reported to Orcanetwork as they continued in very spread out formation southbound through Puget Sound and around Vashon Island before coming back northbound in the night to Admiralty Inlet by daybreak on 21 October. Ken embarked in “Chimo” from Port Angeles in the morning and encountered them still very spread out as the exited the Inlet shortly after noon. The weather forecast called for increasing winds and rain by afternoon so only about an hour could be spent searching for the J17 family group in the hope that J28 and her baby J54 would be found. They were not found, and the reports from Puget Sound indicated they were not seen there either. This is a tragedy unfolding before our eyes, and it has happened before and will happen again – a slow death for an icon species of the Pacific Northwest.

As the whales spread out even farther in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca and the winds picked up. “Chimo” departed the whales at 1422 and a half an hour later entered the storm coming in from the west off Dungeness Spit.

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