EncDate:23/06/22 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:34

ObservBegin:10:44 AM

ObservEnd:02:50 PM

Vessel:Orcinus

Staff:Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers:Rachel John

Pods:J, L

LocationDescr:Haro Strait

Start Latitude:48 27.31

Start Longitude:123 03.08

End Latitude:48 36.55

End Longitude:123 12.33

 

EncSummary:

After we ended our Encounter 33 on June 22nd, J pod and most of the L12s headed north up the San Juan Island shoreline and Ken photographed them from CWR’s deck in the early evening. The L12s must have turned around in the night since, the next morning, Dave got a call from Jeanne Hyde saying she had just seen J pod come down the west side and meet a group of L12s off Hannah Heights. Jeanne said that (and photographed) both groups lined up and were facing each other in greeting ceremony fashion before they merged. The team mobilized and left Snug Harbor in the boat at 1015. We saw our first whales just a little south of False Bay and the encounter began at 1044. We had a nice line up of L22, L25, L85, L113, and L121 moving slowly south. Other whales could be seen spread out farther offshore and to the southwest. Around 1115, most of J pod surfaced after a long dive in one big tight group. This large group started moving slowly north but were not arching much at all so we moved back to a few stragglers after getting a few photos of the big group. The whales trailing the main group by a couple of hundred yards were J27, J44, and J45. By 1140, the large group had made it to Pile Point and the trailing threesome joined them. We stayed with this group long enough to make sure we got a picture of everyone in J pod and determine that there were no Ls in the group.  
We then headed back south to see if we could find our missing L12s. We found our original group of five plus L94, who had joined them while we had been gone, off the south end of False Bay. The group was traveling slowly north for about ten minutes before milling briefly and then turning back south. Around this time, Straitwatch, who were to our southwest, said they had seen three whales out near them. We went on a 20 minute search out that way and then a loop down near Eagle Point but could not find who Straitwatch saw. Our group of L12s had split up at this point and were foraging as they moved south. We were calling it quits and putting away our cameras when Rachel saw a whale offshore of us. This had to be the L77s, we thought, so we went that direction. Sure enough, we finally found L77 and L124 who were traveling south together while L119 paralleled them about 150 yards away to the east. At about 1345, the L77s turned north and started traveling fast back toward San Juan Island. We ended the encounter with the L12s at 1405 off Pile Point.  
J pod had moved up the west side and we thought we might take another look at them on our way to the Roche Harbor fuel dock. We got back on J pod at 1440 just after they had passed Kellett Bluff. The large group had begun to split up and there were now several spread out groups and individuals heading north. We got some more pictures of a trailing group before ending the encounter for real at 1450 off the north end of Henry Island.