J36 and J Pod documented off San Juan Island

EncSummary: The team was working in the office when we received a report of whales heading south in Rosario Strait, and a resident whale was observed with a dead calf off Lawrence Point. We knew J36 was quite pregnant, so we feared we knew who the whale with the calf was. While mobilizing for the boat, we received a back-of-the-camera shot from someone on the scene, and the whale was indeed J36. We made it down to Snug Harbor and left in “KCB3” at 1140. We stopped at Roche Harbor to top off with fuel before setting off again at 1205. There was fog in southern Haro Strait, so we went through the San Juan Islands and exited Obstruction Pass into Rosario Strait. We headed down Rosario on the Blakely Island side of the strait. There was some fog in the area, but it was not thick. We were off Thatcher Pass when a single whale was spotted to the east of us, and the encounter began at 1252. The whale was J36, and we got the drone up immediately. J36 was trying to head south while pushing a dead calf. The calf repeatedly slipped off her nose, and she would have to turn around to pick it back up before it sank. We stayed just long enough to document the scene and determine, through drone footage, that the calf was a female. We left J36 at 1316 and headed south to look for other members of J pod.

About fifteen minutes later, we saw our next whales approaching Watmough Head off the southeast side of Lopez Island. This was the rest of the J16s, and they were spread out with J26 being the furthest offshore. These three were somewhat percussive, with J26 doing a few tail lobs, and J42 breached a couple of times. J42 was looking a little wide around the middle. The J16s turned the corner and headed west. They tightened up some, but were still traveling in a loose formation. We left the three J16s around 1357 just west of Colville Island, still heading west.

We traveled west around the bottom of Lopez Island and finally saw some other members of J Pod around 1420 off the southeast corner of Salmon Bank. This was the J31’s and J27 traveling together. They were in a tight formation as they moved northwest up SJI. J27 and J31 were tactile and allo-kelping together. J31 breached once, and a few minutes later, we got a couple more breaches out of J56. A couple of other single whales could be seen spread out inshore in the distance. J38 was foraging by himself inshore off South Beach. J45 was also foraging a ways east of J38 before he started traveling westerly off South Beach, and we left him off the flagpole at American Camp. A little bit ahead of J45 were the rest of J14s in a tight group traveling up island. We got some nice ID shots on the J37s and J40s before they headed into a thick fog bank off the south end of False Bay. The encounter ended there at 1525.