J Pod

We departed Snug Harbor at 8 AM following reports of Southern Resident killer whales north of San Juan channel. We were joined by Sarah Teaman, a research assistant from our partners at SeaDoc Society. We headed west of Waldron Island where we searched for whales until around 1:30 pm. With no new reports or sightings, we decided to return to Snug Harbor. As we were offloading gear from the research vessel, we received a report of sighting of J pod and L pod members near East Point. We raced back to the boat, loaded up, and headed out to join up with them. We initially encountered the whales near the lighthouse on Stewart Island and remained behind them as they headed south. Fairly quickly after locating them, Eba detected a scent and led us to collect several fecal samples. We then followed J36, J31, and J56, who were soon joined by some other J pod members. After a long day on the water, we returned back to Snug Harbor just after 6 PM as the whales were traveling south.