Today we were fortunate to have our first sighting of the L-12 subgroup of L-pod. For those who are not familiar, L-pod is one of our three resident killer whale families or pods. These large pods consistent of smaller subgroups.
We received an early report that these whales were not far from our Roche Harbor location early this morning. By the time we departed at 11:00am, they had travelled further south than the original report. We caught up with some of the whales by noon around False Bay, on the West Side of San Juan Island. The whales were very spread out and foraging. We stayed with L-12 (female matriarch) and a L-89 for most of the day. We were rewarded toward the end of the tour, when L-12 herself did a little half breach, and then about three minutes later gave us a nice tail lob as she changed her direction and headed back north. The rest of the pod soon joined her in a northerly direction. They are probably foraging right now somewhere between Hein Bank and Pile Point on San Juan Island. This is a normal routine for this group. I believe K-20 and her offspring K38 were also travelling with the L-12 subgroup. Some curiosity about K-20 and K-38 not travelling with their own pod recently, but stranger things have happened. I think everyone would breath a sigh of relief if the rest of K-pod would show up soon. More to follow from Brian's Captain log.