EncDate: 04/10/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 81

ObservBegin: 10:49 AM

ObservEnd: 02:31 AM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers: Katie Jones

Pods: J

LocationDescr: Haro Strait

Start Latitude: 48 40.11

Start Longitude: 123 14.37

End Latitude: 48 32.09

End Longitude: 123 11.13

 

EncSummary:

Jane Cogan called Dave a couple of times to relay morning reports of probable J pod whales coming down Boundary Pass. Dave then called Katie and they met at Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 1025. We were off Tiptop Hill on Stuart Island when we saw our first whales and the encounter began at 1049.

The whales were spread out across Haro Strait in singles and small groups and all were heading south. The first group we approached appeared to have several small juveniles all rolling around and socializing with one another. When we got there, it was only J53 and J56 playing together. Another group appeared a few hundred yards to the east of them and were moving south more quickly. This was all three of the J35s plus J58 who was traveling with them. There were others whales spread out in singles and pairs to the south and west of the J35s group. A distant pair to the west turned out to be J44 and J49 traveling together and another pair to the south was J40 and J46. The J16s minus J36 were also spread out to the north of the J35s group. J27 was traveling alone to the west of the J16s. Ahead of him, J56 had rejoined J31. J45 was also in the area and the J22s were spread out another half mile to the west well on the Canadian side of the strait. Several whales seemed to have moved across to the other side of the strait and there were groups forming closer to Kellett Bluff. We headed that direction and got on the J16s minus J36 again off north Kellett Bluff. This time they were in a tighter group. There were a couple of other groups up ahead of them but they were already tight against the bluff and were heading south quickly.

We decided to head to Roche Harbor to top the boat off with fuel and then head back out after the whales had passed down the west side to the False Bay area. We left the whales off Kellett Bluff at 1145 and headed to the Roche Harbor fuel dock. After topping off the boat, we headed back out through Mosquito Pass and found that the whales were still spread out across Andrews Bay. We continued the encounter around 1240 off of Smugglers Cove. The whales didn’t make it very far in the hour we were gone and the first whales we saw were J16 and J26 again-this time spread out. J45 was inshore of the J16s just north of CWR. We headed south and found J38 off the County Park and then J19 off Bellevue Point. The whales stalled out about a quarter mile north of Lime Kiln State Park. For the next half hour there seemed to be a lot of foraging going on between the old lime kiln and the County Park as we sat about three quarters of a mile northwest of Lime Kiln. A few spread out whales passed us heading south but they didn’t head south of Lime Kiln yet. One of these was pregnant J36 who was at the top of the list of whales we wanted to see in case she had had her calf. She did not have a calf yet but we are hopeful we will see her with it sometime this Fall. A few of the whales that had passed us to the south milled their way back north of us again as they foraged. J53 chased and caught a salmon near us. Around 1345, the whales finally committed to heading south and began making their way down the west side. The whales were still spread out but all seemed to be within about a mile of San Juan Island. J38 was milling north of us when we heard a louder blow and saw a humpback heading north past him. J38 breached twice as he passed us heading south. We ended the encounter with J pod at 1410 just a little south of Lime Kiln and went to see if the humpback would fluke for us. The humpback turned into a pair of them but they were being kinda cryptic while we were still a ways behind them. We stayed behind the mother and large calf pair for several series of surfacings but the neither of the two whales fluked for us. We then moved up and got a few photos of their left side dorsal fins. We left the pair at 1430 still traveling slowly north-northwest about a mile west of the County Park.

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