CWR encounters multiple families of Bigg’s

EncSummary: The team had been working in the office all morning and paying attention to reports of several groups of Bigg’s in the Rosario Strait area. A good portion of these whales reached the bottom of Rosario Strait and turned west. We decided to go out on these whales mainly with the purpose of getting the drone up over them. The boat team grabbed their gear, headed down to Snug Harbor, and left in “KCB3” at 1320. We cruised down the west side of San Juan Island and began approaching the scene as it was rounding Iceberg Point.

We headed toward the whales in the lead, and the encounter began at 1400 about halfway between Iceberg Point and Hall Island. The leaders were the T123s, and they were loosely spread out and heading northwest towards Long Island. We launched the drone for the first of several flights that day. The T123s checked out the reef just north of Hall Island, and at least one whale made a lunge at a seal, but it was unclear if they caught it or not. The T123s headed off towards Long Island and turned the corner into Cattle Pass. More whales were coming up behind the T123s, and we waited for them to arrive. There was a group of at least four with a couple of bulls just behind them. The group of four came up right beside us, and this was T75B and T75B4 flanked by T77 and T77D. T125A and T128 were the males behind them, and T75B2 and T75B3 may have been there too. These whales checked out the same reef the T123s did before spreading out, and most of the whales took the north side of Long Island. T75B, T75B4, T77, and T77D remained in a group of four and eventually crossed Cattle Pass over towards Goose Island. T75B2 and T75B3 disappeared, and we would not see them for a little bit. T125A and T128 spread out in Cattle Pass and began crossing it to the west. In the swirling currents, T128 was surfacing with a hard lean to port every time he came up. By this point, the T123s had sped way up San Juan Channel, and we did not see them for the rest of the encounter. The group of four T75Bs and T77s were over by the SJI shoreline, just north of Goose Island and heading north. T125A and T128 had grouped up and were trailing the foursome as they all bucked a big ebb. The group of four moved over the top of Harbor Rock and continued north up the mouth of Griffin Bay. T125A and T128 spread out a ways behind them. By the time these whales had made it to the top of Griffin Bay, the group of four had moved on up ahead, but T75B2 and T75B3 had reappeared. T125A was following these two while T128 was traveling by himself about a quarter mile to the west. T125A and T128 joined up again along the shoreline of Turn Island while T75B2 and T75B3 spread out mid-channel into the intersection.

We landed the drone and swung way wide as the whales crossed the entrances to Friday Harbor. We moved up San Juan Channel and positioned ourselves northwest of Point Caution while waiting for them to get to us. As the whales approached us, we launched the drone again. T75B2 and T75B3 had joined T75B, T75B4, T77, and T77D, and they were now traveling northwest up San Juan Channel. T125A and T128 were swimming hopefully right behind the females, often upside down, and we called the whales’ behavior social travel. The whales moved to the north side of the channel, and we ended the encounter at 1645 south of Jones Island.