June 26, 2023: J Pod | San Juan Island, WA
Date: Monday, June 26, 2023
Location: Lime Kiln Point State Park, San Juan Island, WA
Weather: Partially sunny, 59 degrees Fahrenheit with 12mph winds from SW
Tide: Flood
Pods: J Pod
Total Whale Count: 25 (presumed)
Behaviors: Traveling, foraging, play
Boat Count: 0
On the Sunday prior to this encounter, reports of J Pod had come through, and J Pod was seen traveling up island, and eventually into Active Pass in Canadian waters. They were likely headed up to the mouth of the Fraser River. In the hopes they would return south by the next day, we booked an early ferry and were on the island by close to 9am.
After waiting the entire morning, reports came in early in the afternoon that J Pod was sighted traveling south in the Strait of Georgia. By about 4:40pm, J Pod had made it to the Lime Kiln Point off the west side of San Juan Island and continued down island. The wind and the overpowering sun glare made for challenging conditions, but we were able to positively ID a handful of whales.
We first saw a small group of whales, including a playful breaching youngster. We were able to get positive IDs on J19 Shachi who was leading the group and was the first to pass us, shortly followed by a mother with calf and young whale (unconfirmed ID, likely J41 Eclipse and offspring J51 Nova and J58 Crescent), and J26 Mike, with others further offshore. Upon the last few whales passing us, one breached right in front of us in the sun glare awwing spectators. After they continued southward, it appeared that everyone had passed, though we knew many members of J Pod had not been accounted for, and we were wondering if the majority could have been offshore and out of site.
As we were packing up and about to join the rest of the people leaving, a fellow whale-watching colleague noticed more whales in the distance from the north traveling towards us. This ended up being the second group out of three total groups that passed. Within the second group, we got positive IDs on J42 Echo with her mother J16 Slick, J49 T'ilem I'nges, J40 Suttles, J31 Tsuchi with her calf J56, and what appeared to look like J53 Kiki (though we don’t have a positive ID).
J49 was approaching very close to shore and made a turn into the small cove just north of the lighthouse where he did an impressive spy hop. Afterward, we were all anticipating another close surface off the rocks, but he snuck past us underwater, surfacing again to the south. At first glance, we thought it was his uncle J45 who had come close and entered the cove based on the height of the dorsal fin. But upon reviewing the footage and photos, it was actually J49 who has started to sprout! As we were waiting to see where J49 would pop up again, J40 Suttles surfaced closely in front of us.
Like the calf that had passed in the first group, J56 was a ball of energy and was exhibiting a lot of surface behaviors including a few breaches. She is going on 5 years this year, and her dorsal fin is starting to grow taller. Her saddle patch is also beginning to show more pigmentation. Between her growing dorsal and developing saddle, she is starting to look different than the most recent ID shot, and it’s exciting to see her grow.
After the second group passed, another smaller group made their way past us, including a few individuals offshore. The only IDs we confirmed out of this group was J37 Hy’Shqa with J59, who had just been given the name Sxwyeqólh by the Samish Indian Nation at a traditional potlatch ceremony the weekend prior. Young J59 did not deviate from the excitement of the other two calves and also exhibited a lot of surface activity including breaches, lunges, and a small headstand (that we missed on camera). As they continued to pass, we saw more breaches from the groups to the south as they made their way down the island.
By the next day, reports had come through that J Pod appeared to have continued south, heading back to the ocean. While we did see some foraging behaviors that indicated they were eating, we noted that the visit inland was fairly short, consisting of roughly around 24 hours, possibly indicating they are going elsewhere for food. The trends of their visits this June followed a similar pattern as the previous year, so we will be interested to see if these trends follow into July, August, and September. If so, we anticipate seeing Ks and Ls possibly early to mid-July.
J Pod is one of three pods within the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whale population. J Pod consists of 6 matrilines and 25 individual whales.
Learn more about J Pod and all the 25 members on our Meet the Southern Resident Page.
