EncDate:26/11/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:123

ObservBegin:11:58 AM

ObservEnd:02:14 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Pods:J

IDsEncountered:Js

LocationDescr:South of Sooke

Start Latitude:48 16.39

Start Longitude:123 40.68

End Latitude:48 16.00

End Longitude:123 45.93

 

EncSummary:

Mark received a report from a colleague that had seen a group of ~ 12 to 15 westbound killer whales heading out the Juan de Fuca Strait offshore of Becher Bay at ~ 0945.
Mark's instinct was that it could be K pod as he had seen J pod two days prior heading west out the Juan de Fuca offshore of Otter Point and figured they may be following suit. 
Note: J pod spent close to a month down in Puget Sound, likely following the chum salmon run, with confirmed sightings of them 31 days between October 19th and November 23rd. K pod spent four days in the Sound, the last sighting of them being on November 15th before they most likely headed north into the Strait of Georgia.
Mark left Victoria at ~ 1100 on Mike 1 and headed west out the Juan de Fuca Strait, expecting to find the animals nearing Sooke. 
At 1158 he spotted distant blows to the south of East Sooke Park, mid-Strait. As he approached he could see a big spread of animals extending south toward the American side and soon confirmed the first pair of individuals as the 14-year-old male sprouter J47 along with his mother J35. They appeared to be foraging as they were pointed southwest originally and turned northwest for a sequence before continuing on a south west track. Mark moved slowly across the strait to confirm his suspicion that it was just Js and not any Ks or Ls in the mix. While he was getting proof of presence pictures of photographing J19, J37 and J41 he spotted three boisterous youngsters, whom he later confirmed were the three newest members of the pod, come racing in from behind them to the east. This explained why J35 was foraging with her 14-year-old son, J47 while her 4-year-old son, J57, was with his grandma, J19. 
All matrilines of Js were accounted for with the J16 and her eldest son, well south of the bulk of the group and J27 was the last animal Mark was able to locate even further south of those two.  
Over the course of the following two hours and fifteen minutes he was able to photograph most of the 25 members and conclude that no other J Clan members were present. It appeared that they were not in a rush to leave the area as they had made it less than 6 nm miles west from the time they were first spotted over four hours earlier.