Latest CWR encounter included the newest addition to J Pod (J59)

||| FROM CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH |||

After being contacted by several people relaying reports of J pod heading down the Strait of Georgia toward Boundary Pass and then President Channel, Dave and Katie met at Snug Harbor and left around 1250ish. We arrived on scene near the bottom of President Channel and the encounter started at 1322. J pod was very spread out and it was not easy to find any whales at the beginning of the encounter.

We briefly saw J38, J31, and J51 all traveling south by themselves as they rounded the west side of Jones Island. J36 milled near us before moving on after the others. We eventually found a group on the north shoreline of Jones Island and this was all of the J17s. The J17s traveled southeast through Spring Passage in a tight group before milling and spreading out. Since we were hoping to find the J37s with the new calf, we left the J17s and headed southeast down San Juan Channel toward some distant whales we thought might be the leaders, passing the J31s on the way.

The group we headed towards turned out to be the J41s speeding down the channel. We could see a couple of whales, including a male, south of them but thought this might be members of the J16s. Right when we almost turned back to see if the J37s were behind us, Katie saw more whales down the channel toward the west tip of Shaw Island. We went there and, luckily, this turned out to be the J37s. The calf was still there and was keeping up with its mom as she traveled quickly down SJ Channel. J49 was also present and J40 soon joined them too. When we were sure we got good right side eyepatches on the calf, we left them off Parks Bay and started slowly motoring back northwest.

We passed J39 and, a little afterwards, found J44 and J53 rolling around together. We ended the encounter with them at 1511 about midway between Pt. Caution and the west end of Shaw Island. We had put our gear away and started to get on our way home when we found one last whale bringing up the rear. This was J45 and he’s looking like it won’t be long before he begins sprouting. We let him pass and ended the encounter again at 1520.