J Pod
We received a report that members of J Pod were heading towards east point on Saturna Island heading towards boundary pass around noon. We arrived at Snug Harbor at 1pm and departed from the dock shortly after. We travelled north up Haro Strait and found the first of the whales as they were porpoising south around Turn Point on Stuart Island. The whales were spread across the whole strait from Sydney Island back to Battleship Island in pairs or alone. We tried to track them but the water were not favorable and the whales were porpoising away from us so we close to wait back at the dock until conditions improved.
At 3:45 we once again departed from Snug Harbor with the hope of intersecting with the last of the whales heading south. We encountered a mother and calf pair on the west side of Henry Island near the bird rookery. We trailed that pair for about 20 minutes as they were foraging. Because our focal group included the youngest calf, J59 and her mom J37, we increased our following distance to minimize any chance of interference. The tide was still flooding and we were positioned well north of the whales in a position that would be optimal for detecting fecal samples in the water. We ended our research voyage as the mother and calf pair ended their foraging bout and began traveling south at fast speed.
Research Vessel
R/V Cheena
Species
Southern Resident Killer Whales
Pods
J Pod
Research Activities
Fecal Collection
This work is made possible in part by a grant from
J Pod
The Wild Orca team departed Snug Harbor at 11:45am to meet up with J Pod members. We received word about the whales around 9:30am from the Center for Whale Research who were on their way out to take census ID photos, so we delayed our departure time a by 90 minutes to give them access to the whales in a collaborative effort to reduce the amount of vessels on scene with the endangered Southern Resident killer whales.
We encountered whales at 12 noon and they led us up Haro Strait and into Boundary Pass on the Canadian side of the border. We collected a very small fecal sample around 4 o’clock near Java Rocks. The sample was a very small wispy and diffused that took a lot of searching to be sure we found each wispy piece.
Research Vessel
R/V Cheena
Species
Southern Resident Killer Whales
Pods
J Pod
Research Activities
Fecal Collection
This work is made possible in part by a grant from