EncDate:07/07/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:67

ObservBegin:02:22 PM

ObservEnd:04:53 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Mark Malleson

Other Observers: Joe Zelwietro, Rachelle Hayden

Pods:J, K, L

IDsEncountered:Entire J Clan

Start Latitude:48 35.36

Start Longitude:123 55.63

End Latitude:48 30.38

End Longitude:125 05.17

 

EncSummary:

On their second day working out of Bamfield, BC, along Vancouver Island’s southwest coast, the team got a leisurely start after recovering from the relentless, sharp swell the previous day. They spent the morning searching high and low to no avail, but near 1400, as they angled offshore from Nitinat, they finally spotted a large spread of killer whales moving west, toward Swiftsure Bank.

Dave quickly identified the first two killer whales photographed as L83 and her teenage son, L110…they had found the Southern Residents! Fortunately, the whales were converging into three or four large groups. This made the work efficient, and the team were soon able to identify many members of L pod, including both the L12 and L54 sub-groups, some of the lesser-seen whales in inside waters. L88 was not a part of this large group, though he is generally encountered alongside the L54s.

 

Unfortunately, L85 was again not observed with his cohort of the L12s, L22 and L25. L87 has for the moment taken his place alongside L22, and we do not expect to see L85 again. We report on demographic changes, including births, deaths, and new population size, twice a year: Once in March, where we report on the population as of January 1, and once in September to report the population changes as of July 1.

 

The next large group contained almost all of J pod, the J17s lagging just behind the other 19 animals and a handful of Ks. As J pod has been documented quite thoroughly in Haro Strait and the area throughout June, the team did not linger after confirming the presence of each individual, and moved ahead to the next loose grouping, expecting and finding more of K pod and some of the missing Ls. L88 was near a tight group of K12s. The groups began to splinter as they reached their chosen foraging ground west of Swiftsure Bank, but the team managed to photograph the L55s and K20s, among others.

By the late afternoon, they had photographed every member of J Clan, ending the day how it began, with L83 and L110, this time watching the duo forage as they sauntered west.