EncDate:27/05/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:44

ObservBegin:11:30 AM

ObservEnd:04:55 PM

Vessel:KCB III

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss, Katie Jones

Pods:J, K, L

LocationDescr:Haro Strait

Start Latitude:48 25.81

Start Longitude:123 10.50

End Latitude:48 22.90

End Longitude:123 08.13

 

EncSummary:

We began receiving reports of Southern Residents coming in off Trial Island on Monday morning. Early reports suggested that it probably more than just J pod. The team met at Snug Harbor and left in “KCB3” at 1048. Since the latest reports put the leaders at Discovery, we headed down Haro Strait toward False Bay expecting them to be coming across. We made it to False Bay without seeing anything before heading south offshore of Eagle Point. We were still not seeing anything, and the sighting conditions were good. We figured the whales hadn’t made it across yet so we headed west towards Seabird Point. A freighter had made the turn up Haro around Beaumont Shoal and, as we approached the area, we began to see splashes. We had finally KWs and they were riding the stern wake of the freighter. The encounter began at 1130 near Beaumont Shoal.

The group riding the wake were the leaders and soon broke off and started heading up Haro at high speed. We could see other whales behind the leaders. The lead group was the J19s and they porpoised away heading north on a line towards Andrews Bay. Behind them was a loose group of all the J17s plus J56 on the same line. To the south of this group, we could see more spread out whales which turned out to be the rest of J pod. However, even further to the south, we could see two other large groups that had to be other SRs. We quickly, and rather impatiently, made sure we got a photo of every member of J pod before heading south to a large group. This group turned out to be all of K pod in a tight group heading slowly northeast on a line towards Hannah Heights. We made sure we got some good right and lefts on everybody and then launched the drone. We got three flights in and got a solid forty minutes of the whales mostly in a resting formation. Towards the end of our time with K pod, they began milling a little offshore of False Bay. There was a little splashing and K16 spyhopped. At one point the K12s drifted away from the others and were floating around briefly. K33 had kelp draped across his back. A few of the K12s moved south towards Eagle Point. After a bit, we decided to head that direction to see who ended up down there.  

We could see a whale or two at Eagle Point but we weren’t sure who they would turn out to be. We passed K37 heading south nearshore about hallway between the south end of False Bay and Eagle Point. We found several spread out whales foraging near Eagle Point, including a mom/calf pair that turned out to be L119 and L126! Then, L77 swam by us and then L22 showed up. K37 was seen briefly heading south right off the bluff at Eagle Point. L121 and L127 also showed up and were playing around with one another. L94 appeared inshore of us and L124 made an appearance to the east of us. We were kinda hoping we just had the L12s and, therefore, just a few more whales to find. However, chance proof-of-presence photos taken of a couple of distant whales showed L82 and L91. So now we knew we had the 18 Ls along with the L12s out there somewhere. Our whales near Eagle Point dissipated on us but we saw a pair of socializing whales a little to the north. They were floating around being tactile so it took us a moment to figure out who they were. It ended up being the sprouter L110 and L122. L110 laid at the surface briefly and showed us his healed torn lip that he has had since he was a calf. We were not seeing any other whales close to shore, so we headed offshore of Eagle Point. We found the L86s spread out, out there. L90 was also in the area. The L86s were milling but other whales appeared to be heading westerly. L110 and L122 showed up again, this time traveling with their moms L83 and L91 heading southwest. The L94s (minus L113) and L22 were a little ways to the southeast and paralleling their course. The L77s were also in the area although they never hooked up with the other L12s while we were with them. We spent a little time getting photos on the L11s while another group appeared about a half mile to the east-northeast of us. This turned out to be the L72s, L115, and, somehow, the L91s again. At this point, all whales were heading southwest. More whales were appearing and they were spread out north to south with several spread out groups with tight centers and peripheral individuals. We passed the L82s and L103s on the way to a group that we thought might have whales we hadn’t seen yet in it. We then found L25, L113, L87, and they had joined up with the rest of the L94s and L22. Beyond them, to the southwest, we found L55, L109, and L118 which were the last of the whales we were expecting to find. We ended the encounter at 1655 about five miles southeast of Seabird Point with all of the L pod members present heading slowly southwest. We were confident that the L54s and L88 were not in Haro Strait today. Of the rest of L pod, the only whale we could not find was L85. Since L pod were spread out for most of the day, there is still a chance he will show up later so we won’t have anymore to say about him until we have more encounters with the L12s and a complete census of the population. L85 was looking a little thin in August of 2023 but he was still alive in November. On our way home, we saw from a distance what appeared to be all of K pod in a tight group heading slowly north in Mitchell Bay.