EncDate:18/11/22 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:78

ObservBegin:02:05 PM

ObservEnd:03:45 AM

Vessel:Orcinus

Staff:Dave Ellifrit

Pods:J

LocationDescr:lower Strait of Georgia and Boundary Pass

Start Latitude:48 48.95

Start Longitude:123 05.21

End Latitude:48 45.41

End Longitude:123 06.17

 

EncSummary:

Early Friday afternoon, Dave received word from John Durban of the SR3 drone team saying that they had found southern residents heading south in the Strait of Georgia off the Belle Chains. Since it was a nice day and the whole SR community had been up in the Strait of Georgia for the past week, Dave headed to the boat and left Snug Harbor at 1315. “Orcinus” arrived on scene at 1405 about two miles north of Tumbo Island. The whales were spread out and heading southeast toward East Point. The first whale seen was J40 with J27 about 150 yards to the west of her. Maybe a quarter mile due north of these whales was a small active group that included J49, J53, and J59. The J22s were a couple of hundred yards to the northwest of them and J37 was also in the area. Another group several hundred yards to the east of these whales was the J16s. The J31s were about a hundred yards to the east of the J16s and J39 was a little east of the J31s. All the whales were heading towards East Point. The J11s, J14s, J16s, and J22s came together in a loose line up as they approached Boiling Reef and East Point. Another group of whales had been nearer to the Saturna Island shoreline and had headed east through Tumbo Channel before reaching East Point ahead of the rest of J pod. By about 1445, J pod was entering the Saturna Island no-boat zone so there was about a forty minute gap in observations while we waited for the whales to get closer to Monarch Head. It was apparent, by this point, that J pod had detached itself from K and L pods and had left them somewhere back up north in the Strait of Georgia.
The lead group of J pod approached Monarch Head by about 1520. This group was active and splashing and there were several breaches. A lone female was foraging by herself ahead of the group and this turned out to be J19. She eventually moved back to the group which was the rest of the J19s and the J35s. Near Monarch Head, the group began milling and there were several spyhops. It appeared that the whales had been playing with kelp. The J19s and J35s were nearing the Java Islets when they turned southeasterly toward Waldron Island. The rest of J pod had moved to the American side of Boundary Pass and were heading south a little northwest of Skipjack Island. The encounter ended at 1545 near the Java Islets with the J19s and J35s moving slowly back across Boundary Pass toward the rest of J pod.