CWR comes across J Pod

EncSummary: Mark left Victoria harbour at 0830 to take advantage of great weather in the Juan de Fuca and complete a survey.

He had come across the four members of the J11s the day before and documented J31 carrying around a deceased neonate (see Encounter #91). He was hoping to confirm that she had let it go and had reintegrated into the rest of the pod. Based on several reports throughout the past week, it seemed as though J pod was patrolling the Juan de Fuca Strait between Sooke and Sombrio Point, perhaps having found a good source of food.

As luck would have it, as Mark approached Race Rocks, he received a shore-based report from a friend and colleague of what looked like SRKW travelling west offshore of Otter Point. With the Beaufort 0 conditions, Mark was soon able to spot them ahead, as he passed by the entrance to Sooke Harbour.

The first whale he came across was 23-year-old bull J39, just slightly ahead and offshore of the 35-year-old bull J26. Mark was heartened, as the presence of J39 suggested that the J11s had very likely all rejoined the rest of J pod. He could see a large spread of animals to the south and west of him, so decided to work his way west and begin methodically collecting proof-of-presence shots of the lead whales before they slid too far west.

A mile ahead of the two bulls, he came across J19 and J35, who appeared to be leading the group west, and were followed closely by J36 and J53. J41 was next to be photographed, with her two-year-old J62 in tow, and J63 was shadowing them. Mark watched her foraging briefly before doing a jubilant breach! Good to see the young whale so independent, as J40 wasn’t at her side.

Over the next little while, Mark worked hard to find J31 or any other members of the J11s, but aside from his early look at J39, he was unable to. It is likely she was present amongst the crowd, hopefully foraging successfully along with daughter J56.

After working his way back through the group to the trailing animals, he ended the encounter close to shore at Sheringham Point with a foraging J38 who was well behind the rest of the spread-out. animals.