CWR encounter with L pod

EncSummary: Mark had had J and L pods coming in the Strait of Juan de Fuca the evening before (Encounter 64-1), so we expected some SRs to be around today and were up and ready. An early report had J pod going through Active Pass, but we hoped that L pod might be down the west side somewhere. Sure enough, Jenny contacted us and said she had 10-12 whales logging around down near Eagle Point. The team met down at Snug Harbor and left in “KCB3” at 0740. We headed down the west side of San Juan Island and saw our first whales off the south end of False Bay. The encounter began there at 0805.

The first whales we saw were a small group that included L25, L124, and L127. We got the drone up for the first of several flights that day. The two young whales were doing a lot of rolling and splashing. L127 breached once. L108 showed up and followed this group briefly before drifting offshore. We went inshore and found L77 and L119 spread out foraging near the shoreline. L119 breached a few times. Not long after getting photos of these two, we found L126 by himself. L126 still has a worrisome look and is a small whale for his age, but he keeps plugging along. L119 appeared in the same area as L126 before we left them to head offshore again. We found L87 traveling south by himself. Somewhere inshore of L87, we found L121, who was kelping a little. To the south, we found L88 heading north by himself. To the north of him, L108 and L117 were loosely spread out from one another and milling. L117 chased a fish and may have lost it. These two began heading down island, although none of the whales were actually making much headway to the south. A bit to the north of L117, we found L25 with L124 and L127 playing together again. L54 had joined them since we last saw them. L77 was seen again further offshore of this group. L94 showed up heading back towards SJI. L113 also appeared, and she was joined by L127 as they headed inshore after L94. The three L94s turned north at the south end of False Bay. Offshore and north of these three, we found L117 and L121 again, this time traveling north together. Off Hannah Heights, these two were joined by L108, and this loose threesome continued north about a half mile offshore. We got some shots on these three and then pulled away at the south end of Landbank and headed north up towards Bellevue Point to wait for the whales to pass the park. Off the County Park, we saw L119 and L22 inshore of her. At this point in the day, we were certain we only had the L12s, L54s, and L88 on the west side of SJI. We had heard about a report of what was probably the rest of L pod heading north in Rosario Strait. L22 was the last of the 15 Ls present that we needed to find that day, but we decided to stick with this group and wait to get the 19 Ls when they came back down tomorrow. We moved in shore and got some good right-side shots of L22 off CWR. We briefly saw L126 by himself again off Smugglers Cove. L119 was milling a little to the northwest of him. We ended the day with a nice group that included the L54s, L88, L25, and L121 heading north off the mouth of Mitchell Bay. The L77s were milling and floating around offshore of this group. We ended the encounter at 1342 with the group of six Ls still heading north off the south end of Kellett Bluff.