Southern residents return to the Salish Sea

||| FROM CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH |||

Full Encounter Report

ObservBegin: 09:40 AM
ObservEnd: 03:14 PM
Vessel: KCB III
Staff: Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss, Darren Croft
Other Observers: Taylor Redmond, Rachel John
Pods: L Pod
IDsEncountered: L22, L25, L54, L77, L87, L88, L94, L108, L113, L117, L119, L121, L124, L126, and L127
LocationDescr: Haro Strait

Encounter Summary

Southern residents had been reported coming in off Sooke the previous evening, so the team was up and ready to go early the next morning. There were some early morning reports of whales down the west side. The ecotype was unconfirmed, but we thought it was worth heading down there to see who we could find. There was a bit of a smoky haze in the air, but the fog seemed to remain in the far south. The team left Snug Harbor in “KCB3” at 0808 and headed down the island. After a couple of stops to scan with binoculars, we finally saw our first dorsal fin a little southeast of Hein Bank, and the encounter began at 0940.

The first whale we encountered was L108 as he foraged non-directionally in the area. We were happy to see L108 as we had only seen him for one surfacing on our trip out west in July. We got a really nice left side on him and a decent right before moving on to the second whale we saw. This was L88, and he was foraging too. We eventually found L25 and L54, and they were also very spread out and foraging in the area between Hein and Eastern Banks. It would take over half an hour and a good deal more searching to find any more whales. These whales were almost 2 miles to the northeast of the four whales foraging between Hein and Eastern Banks, and these were L87 and L22. They were paralleling each other by a couple of hundred yards as they traveled west. To the northwest of L87 and L22, we could see another group of four and yet another group to the northwest of them. After we got photos of L22 and L87, we moved to the next group, who were the L77s, and they were pointed west at first but turned north. The L77s were not being particularly cooperative, and we left them after getting the bare minimum of what we wanted out of them ID photo-wise. We soon moved on to the next group of whales, whom we correctly assumed were the L94s. The L94s were loosely spread and milling when we first got on them. They milled near a kelp mat, so we got the drone up for the first of several flights that day. L113 was seen briefly with something on her head before she dropped back while the other three moved off to the northeast and were pointed towards American Camp. L121 and L127 were playing together, and the drone showed that they were allo-kelping while they trailed their mom, L94. L113 soon came quickly from the southwest, carrying something. This something ended up being a dead adult (or nearly adult) harbor porpoise. While L127 briefly showed some interest in the porpoise, L113 was interacting with it mainly by herself. L113, on several occasions, appeared to drop the porpoise and went back for it as it started to sink. It really seemed like L113 was treating the dead porpoise like a dead calf in the same vein as J35 with J61, or J35’s dead neonate from 2018, rather than using it as a plaything. L94, L121, and L127 continued on while heading north towards American Camp. L121 and L127 were frolicking together and both breached several times. After getting ID shots on the L94s, we went looking for other whales to get better shots of. We did a loop to the west and then south some. We had another brief pass by from L22 and L87 before we found the L77s again to the south of them. The L77s were moving quickly north towards SJI. They were together at first before splitting into two groups of two, with L77 and L124 in front and L119 and L126 a couple of hundred yards behind them. Most of the L54s and L12s hit the west side of SJI between American Camp and Eagle Point.

Of the whales around that day, the only whale we hadn’t seen yet was L117. We almost ended the encounter offshore of Eagle Point when we saw a group of three, at least another half mile offshore of us. This threesome was socializing together and included L108, L121, and L117. These three were quite active and tactile with one another.

At one point, L117 began chasing a fish, mostly by himself, as L108 and L121 were not helping much. L117 eventually caught the fish and did not share it with the other two. We ended the encounter at 1514 offshore of False Bay with these three still socializing together as they headed up San Juan Island. The whales made it to CWR by the time the team was back from the boat, but they turned around and headed back down the island early that evening.