Back to back days of a Southern Resident superpod!
Earlier this week, we were thrilled to witness back to back days of a Southern Resident superpod. Many people were curious where this event took place, so we thought it would be fun to share this map with you covering their movements over the course of three days. For those who may not know, a true Southern Resident superpod occurs when all members of the J, K, and L pods gather together in the same location. That’s 74 whales!
On November 9th, after spending a couple of days in central Puget Sound, J-Pod decided to make their way north. They were first spotted around 8:30am in the Possession Triangle, then made their way up Admiralty Inlet. Meanwhile, K-Pod and L-Pod were spotted southeast of Discovery Island, BC traveling east, originally aiming toward the San Juan Islands before veering south. All three pods met up somewhere in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, and by midnight, were audible via the Bush Point hydrophone coming back into Puget Sound. It left us all wondering if Js knew Ks and Ls were coming in, and if perhaps that’s why they went north - to meet them!
November 10th started with excitement, as calls from J, K, and L-Pods were audible on the Sunset Bay hydrophone early in the morning. By 9:00am, we were on the water and found them spread out in the Possession Triangle. The group initially moved northwest toward Point No Point, but by the afternoon had flipped and headed south.
On November 11th, early reports at 6:25am from Orca Network indicated that the superpod was spotted north of Blake Island. The whales were widely dispersed across the channel and traveling north at steady speed. We had our most productive data collection day yet with the Center for Whale Research, and left them making their way out of Admiralty Inlet. As they left, they could again be heard on the Bush Point and Port Townsend hydrophones, hosted by Orcasound - Listen for Whales.
