Second encounter of CWR 2026 outer coast research trip

EncSummary: After getting blown off the water the previous day due to windy conditions, we had a good weather report for the day and wanted to get an early start. Both “KCB3” and “Mike 1” left the dock at the McKay Bay Lodge at 0608. Once out of Barkley Sound, both boats took the same lines they took on the 7th towards Swiftsure Bank. The day was showing a lot of promise with relatively calm seas, and we could see all the way to Cape Flattery. Like on Tuesday, both boats stopped on several occasions for coordinated hydrophone drops. Unfortunately, like on Tuesday, neither boat heard anything on these stops. “KCB3” made it to the end of its line just a little south of the shipping traffic lanes convergence zone. Not long after passing our mark on the chart, Michael saw a killer whale to the south of us and the encounter began at 0655. In this area, we were just far enough west to be in the next time-zone.

The first whale we saw was K20, and she was traveling west by herself. K20 spyhopped once. K27 was heading west to the south of K20. K14 and K37 were spread out behind the other two. After these four, we found K43 and her new calf K47. This was our first good look at K47 since early January, and it was nice to see it stuck to K43. K47 looked active, healthy, and well filled out. We got some shots of these two, but they were moving around a lot, and it was hard to put them in good lighting. By this point, “Mike 1” had radioed us to report they had seen our earlier westbound Ks and that there were some L12s mixed in with them, so we knew we had a lot more whales to find. To the southwest of the K43s, we saw K33 and another smaller male. These two turned and headed straight for the younger male, and we turned out to be L117, so now we knew that the rest of the L54s and L88 should be around too. We did see L54 but didn’t get a good shot of her, and L87 showed up too. Most whales were still very spread out, but there was the occasional small group. We saw our first J pod whales when we found the J40s with J46 and J53. J39 was also seen briefly, and then “KCB3” did not see him again for most of the day. L108 showed up by himself, and we saw him several times throughout the day. The group that included the J40s, J46, and J53 was joined by the L94s, L124, and L87. J26 was also in the area. We then found a group that had the J31s and most of the L77s in it. J26 was following them around. After that, we found L22 by herself. Somewhere to the east of L22, K16 and K35 were charging west towards another group that K35 would join. This group had J46, L94, L127, and the K22s along with several males including J44, J45, J51, K42, and L87.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to find as many individuals as possible. The whales weren’t traveling in one direction for any length of time, so there were a lot of direction changes. The whales remained very spread out, although some good groups started to form by early afternoon. We did find L25, and it was good to see the oldest whale in the population still kicking around. A little while later we found J46 now heading east and still being pursued by mostly the same bunch of hopeful males-J45, J51, K35, K37, K42, and L87. Around this time, Mark and Joe, who were several miles south of us checking out whales down there, found a large group of northern residents including whales from various C and G pod matrilines just a couple miles south of the southern residents (Encounter 53-3). The crew on “KCB3” resisted the temptation to head down there to see some NRs and remained working the whales we were there for. But it was hard. By this point in the day, both boats were convinced that the “19 Ls” (the L4s, L47s, L72, and L90) were not present, and we were down to just a couple of whales who should have been around who hadn’t been seen yet today. L88 ended up being the last whale we needed to find who should be around. Near the end of the day, we had a nice group forming up that included the J22s, J37s, L94s, and L25. A bull showed up from the south, and it was L88! He joined the group who were spending a lot of time at the surface. L117 was also nearby. We ended the encounter with K16 and K35 heading west again, a little northwest from where we started the day.