J's, K's, L's, San Juan Channel

Southern Resident Killer Whales

I love it when I can write J’s, K’s, L’s, San Juan Channel. It is nice to see all three pods. I received word first thing this morning that Southern Resident Killer Whales are inbound from Sea Bird. That was good news. They have not been around much, and we have mostly been viewing Biggs Killer Whales.

We left the dock and saw some Harbor Seals, an Egg Yolk Jellyfish, and Bald Eagles before heading out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and seeing J27 Blackberry for our first whale. He is a magnificent looking male with his tall sail of a dorsal fin.

Egg Yolk Jellyfish

You can easily tell how the Egg Yolk Jellyfish got its name. Some have called it a fried egg jelly, but I prefer the Egg Yolk moniker. “Jellies” are a part of the subphylum Medusozoa family. For a look at another Jelly here in the Salish Sea check out the Lions Mane Jellyfish.

Hydrophone Chatter

We saw and heard more J’s and K’s on the Hydrophone which was pretty cool to listen too. In the strait, it was smaller groups of one, two or three whales as they were spread far and wide foraging for salmon.

The water was calm, and the air temp was comfortable making for an enjoyable day on the water.

Our afternoon tour I thought would be pretty much the same but as I left the harbor realized that some J’s and K’s and L87 Onyx were in the channel and coming towards us.

We spent some time with two matrilines of K Pod the K14’s and K’13’s. The remainder of the time we observed J Pod whales and L87 Onyx. We saw J26 Mike, J27 Blackberry, J19 Sachi and L87 Onyx who also breached for us a couple of times.

With J’s, K’s, L’s, in San Juan Channel how could it be anything but a glorious day. These whales are in dire need of more salmon and trying to get our government to listen is not an easy task.