EncDate:25/06/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#*:29

ObservBegin:11:09 AM

ObservEnd:12:49 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Mark Malleson

Other Observers:

Pods:J

LocationDescr:Strait of Juan de Fuca

Start Latitude:48 23.01

Start Longitude:123 20.30

End Latitude:48 25.10

End Longitude:123 09.86

 

EncSummary:

Mark was visiting the rest of the CWR team on San Juan Island when we received reports of Southern Residents coming in near Race Rocks. Since we had recently received photos of a new calf with L pod taken the week before off Tofino, we decided that we should go check out who exactly these whales were. Mark and Dave headed down to Snug Harbor and left on Mike 1 after 1030. We arrived on scene off Clover Point and the encounter began at 1109. There was a large tight group in the lead as they headed east into slightly lumpy seas. This group consisted of the J19s, J22s, and the J37s (minus J45). A couple hundred meters behind them was a group of five that included the J31s, J27, J39, and J45. The rear group caught up to and merged somewhat with the lead group by 1030 but the whales had split up some by the time they passed the south tip of Trial Island. Over a quarter mile southeast of these whales, we found all three of the J35s traveling east in a tight group. We then moved back toward Trial Island to see if we could find some of the J pod whales that we hadn’t seen yet as it was apparent that J pod were the only whales here. We found our original whales back near the south end of Trial Island, but it didn’t look like the whales we were looking for were there, so we moved back to the southeast. We then found a loose threesome that included J44, J46, and J53. At this point, we had found and photographed everyone in J pod except for all four of the J16s. We moved inshore towards the southwest corner of Discovery Island and found J16, J26, and J42 loosely spread out and heading east toward Seabird Point. J19 and J39 were ahead of the J16s. All the whales pointed northeast and spread out into singles and smaller groups as they traveled toward San Juan Island. We ended the encounter at 1249 a couple of miles east of Seabird Point right on the US/Canadian border. It was a good photo-ID day and we got a photo of everyone in J pod but J36. “Orcinus” would go out a little later and find and photograph J36.

​

​

​