In recent encounter, Center for Whale Research confirms J58 is a girl

||| FROM CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH |||

Jane Cogan had been keeping Dave informed Saturday morning about a group of transients in Rosario Strait. Around noon, Jane called again to say they were now hearing Southern Resident calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophone. Katie and Dave eventually met at Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 1355. Mark was out on a POW boat and had briefly seen some of the J16s heading toward SJI while on his way to the transients.

Northern Haro Strait was lumpy and we bounced our way south until we saw our first whales off Deadman Bay at 1410. Since it looked like they were entering the park we decided to wait for them where we were near Bellevue Point. Except they never showed up. We drifted south a little with the ebbing tide and figured out the lead whales had turned around and were now heading down island. We putted south and found the group again off LandBank almost a half hour after we had first seen them. They were milling a little and were briefly pointed north again before continuing down island not far off the shoreline.

All the J19s plus J35 and J58 were traveling together in a tight group. J57 and J58 were doing a lot of rolling and splashing and there was a half breach from one of the adults. About ten minutes later the group was joined by J47 coming from offshore. We left this group off Hannah Heights and moved down island toward Kanaka Bay and found J37 and J49 laying at the surface together. They had a salmon and were rolling and being tactile with one another while they shared their fish. The water was much calmer down here.

Near the south end of False Bay, J38 foraged by himself. J22 was also in the area a little north of him. J38 started doing pec slaps and another whale appeared east of him near the shoreline. This was J45 and he headed toward J38 and joined him. These two began socializing and we soon moved on. After making sure we got a photo of J22, we headed toward Eagle Point where Katie had seen a couple of fins and found a tight group of three spending a lot of time at the surface. On the way to them, Katie saw a whale with kelp in its mouth. This threesome was J16, J26, and J42 and they were pointed up island and moving very slowly with some rolling around with one another. J26 surfaced with kelp draped over his back.

We moved back up island and found a group of four traveling down island in a tight group at the south end of False Bay. This was J36, J40, J46, and J53 and they moved quickly southeast until they stalled out and began milling off Eagle Point. We kept moving back up island and found the J35s again traveling slowly up island in a tight group. The J19s were in a tight group about a hundred and fifty yards to the northwest of the J35s. The two groups joined each other and we left them heading slowly up-island a little south of Hannah Heights at 1727.