J and L pods are back!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
As Elise and Heather prepared breakfast, we motored out from Garrison Bay to Roche Harbor to pump out our holding tank and fill up our water tank. We heard that J and L pods were near the lighthouse, off the west coast of San Juan Island, so we headed through Mosquito Pass and turned south. We caught up with J pod first and followed them southwest. The day was filled with recording calls, whistles and clicks, as well as collecting data on behavior, bearing, distance and identification. We spent almost 5-6 hours with whales, only breaking for lunch (egg salad). The whales spyhopped, tailslapped, and breached. We were able to successfully identify L2, L88, L67, L78, J1, J2, J16, J17, J26, J27… through binoculars using the photo ID catalog. Towards the end of the day, we watched a large group resting, as individuals from J and L pods caught up with them. At around 5:30 pm, we motored towards our anchorage for the night, back at Mackaye Harbor on Lopez Island.
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