Center for Whale Research encounters J Pod in Haro Strait

EncSummary: There were morning reports of southern residents in Haro Strait and then, not long after, Michael saw members of J pod from the house as they headed north past CWR. The team gathered at Snug Harbor and left in “KCB3” at 0954 with the hope of getting some good drone footage. Michael spotted whales near the mouth of Mitchell Bay before we had even left the harbor. The encounter started at 1005 at the mouth of Mitchell Bay south of Kellett Bluff.

The first whales we saw were in a large, loosely spread-out group that included J39, J46, J49, J51, J53, J56, J62, and J63. This group was active and social, and we launched the drone on them for the first of seven flights on the day. J56 did a few belly flops. J45 and J27 were spread out to the west of the loose group, and J40 was off by herself a little to the northwest. Up ahead of this group and J40, we found J38 and J44 traveling together, and we flew over these two until they approached the border. Next, we found J16, J26, and J42 traveling in a spread-out threesome on the Canadian side of Haro, east of Mandarte Island. After the J16s, we decided to go ahead towards Turn Point to see if we could find some of the J pod members we hadn’t seen yet. Sure enough, we found a couple of whales milling in the tide rip off the point. This turned out to be J19 and J36. J19 headed north towards Swanson Channel while J36 was last seen pointed more easterly towards Mt. Baker. J41 and J58 showed up and followed in the direction of J19. After those two went by, J51 and J62 came from the southwest together and followed their mom. J62 soon joined up with J41. J62 was active and breaching as the J41s headed north towards Swanson Channel. We ended the encounter at 1305, a little north of Turn Point, after J16 passed us heading northeast. We did briefly see J44 and J53 again, a little south of Turn Point on the way home.