L12
San Juan Island
June 10, 2009
Photo by Marie O'Shaughnessy

June 10
The two K's and L12s started off at 5:12 am off west San Juan Island - headed north, turned, headed south---and have been doing the shuffle ALL DAY LONG, all day between South Beach and Landbank- I dont even think they have made it to Lime Kiln yet. Up down, up down -- CLASSIC. When I saw all the big fins this morning I thought we had a superpod on our hands - but not.
Sandy Buckley, San Juan Island

June 10
The 3.30pm Ocean Magic encountered some of L pod orca this afternoon off San Juan Island.We found 'Mega', L 41 and 'Alexis, L 12 (see photo above), foraging 1-2 miles offshore from other members of this family group. We watched for a while and then moved closer to shore where we watched L 77 'Matia' and two others that I weren't able to identify, as they were far off. They were all heading North. I did hear that K 20 and K38 had joined this group so perhaps those two seen very close to shore were the K's.
Marie, O'Shaughnessy, Orca-Magic, Prince Of Whales, Victoria B.C.

June 10
Southern Resident Killer Whales on the west side of San Juan Island. We identified members of L-pod, one of the three pods of the southern resident killer whales. We first saw some members of L-pod just south of Lime Kiln State Park heading North. Just as we decided to make a trip around San Juan Island following the orcas, they changed their direction and began heading South. We quickly changed our direction and began heading south as well. We watched as the orcas traveled and even spy hopped. The captain then decided to head north and take a peak at the Cactus Islands. These islands are very beautiful. We then began looking for bald eagles and to our surprise found not only one but four. On our way back to Friday Harbor we got a good look at some of the mouflon sheep on Spieden. These sheep are awesome to look at. Another great adventure in the San Juan Islands with San Juan Safaris!!!
Jeannette, Naturalist, Crew At San Juan Safaris Whale Watch Wildlife Tours

L 89, "Solstice"
June 2, 2009
Off Victoria, BC
Photo by Jim Maya

June 2
We have just heard from our vessel that they have encountered members of L Pod (the L12's) near Albert Head, B.C. This is the first confirmed sighting of members of L Pod in the waters off Victoria this season and what a wonderful surprise!
Andrew Lees, Five Star Whale Watching

June 2
At a little before 3:00 this afternoon, the L 12s showed up a little to the east of Race Rock. Wow. Big surprise. We had to head home.
Late in the evening, we left L89 and L22 way out west of Victoria this evening at 6:30. We were lucky enough to see these breaches (see photo above).
Capt. Jim Maya, Maya's Westside Charters

L pod near Port Hardy

No calls but orcas nearby

The Mackays report that a large group of orcas was seen earlier this evening near Port Hardy. The whales were headed this direction.
Helena
29 May 2009 23:41:21 PDT

No orcas present.

More news: the DFO received photos of the whales off Port Hardy last night: L41,L77,L79,L12,L22,L89 were identified. They were reported heading east. No reports today.
Helena
30 May 2009 16:07:17 PDT

May 29
Hi Howard and Susan - I thought you might like to know that I just received photos from Linda Nichol and Melissa Boogaards who work in our group and it looks like they had L's heading east off Port Hardy at 1800 this evening. From the photos they sent I could identify: L41, L77, L79,L12, L22, and L89. With any luck they should be down your way in a couple of days. Cheers,
Graeme Ellis, Pacific Biological Field Station, Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans

L pod off the Columbia River plume

March 27
2:25 pm. L pod off the Columbia River plume. We detected them acoustically first... it was very exciting to find them. We lost them again last night since they were quiet during our last visual sight and traveling south along the 20 fathom line pretty much for most of the afternoon (3/26). We had to go deeper after dark because of all the fishing gear out here. We continued south to overshoot where we thought they might be by morning and then did tracklines back up north. The visual team found them again off the Columbia R plume this afternoon (14:25). The crew just deployed the small boat and the whales are grouped up, resting and haven't made a peep so far. Our current lat/long is 046deg 21'51.5460"N, 124deg 41'411.3200"W.
Marla Holt, NOAA Fisheries NWFSC, on the McArthur II

L pod off Grays Harbor WA

March 26
Our encounter with L pod off Westport today: Spent entire day with them as they were heading south - left them off Long Beach - too far inshore to take the Mac II at night so will have to try to relocate in AM.
Looks like we will be hiding somewhere over weekend due to 40 kts wind forecast.
Brad Hanson, NOAA Fisheries NWFSC, from NOAA Ship McArthur II

March 26
3:30 am - L pod off Grays Harbor WA.
We found L pod on the 4th day at sea!!! The NOAA ship, McArthur II ran into all of L pod just north of Grays Harbor WA. in the middle of the night last night (~0330 March 26). We lost them acoustically but then found them visually and acoustically in the mid morning and were able to deploy the small boat (RHIB). The whales were spread out and traveling south most of the day. Brad and the rest of the crew got photo IDs and some prey samples, stayed with them day until 1830. Last visual sighting was at dusk when they grouped back up and became quiet. Hopefully we will stick with them through the night to get more samples tomorrow.
Marla Holt, NOAA Fisheries NWFSC, from NOAA Ship McArthur II

L-pod at Monterey Bay, CA

Sighting · March 3, 2009 · L's
L pod was last seen up this way in Puget Sound on 20 February, and then they raced the eight hundred miles down the coast to be seen on 3 March by Richard Ternullo of Monterey Bay Whale Watch. In this photograph, L pod seems to be racing back to the north with Moss Landing in the background. In this photo we can identify L25, L47, L54, L84, and L100.

February 20 0229

Great calls at 6:45 pm on the Port Townsend MSC hydrophones as L pod continues north!
Susan & Howard, Orca Network, Whidbey Island


Candi Emmons of NOAA Fisheries called to say they were with the orcas, just approaching Point No Point on N. Kitsap Peninsula at 3:50 pm. They had ID'd what looked like most or all of L pod.