33 members of L-Pod "appearing" out of nowhere in Haro Strait!

Even though we do our best to track killer whales coming and going from the Salish Sea with the help of a vast network of community scientists, we love nothing more than when surprises happen - like the 33 members of L-Pod "appearing" out of nowhere in Haro Strait.

On American Thanksgiving we got word that J-Pod was inbound from Victoria, and overnight they went north towards the Strait of Georgia. When a friend spotted a large group of whales off the west side of San Juan Island yesterday afternoon, we assumed it might be Js coming back down, though it seemed almost too fast to be them, didn't it?

When we got out for ourselves I wish you could have seen the gears turning in my head as we saw a line of whales approaching from the distance: "It's too many whales to be just K-Pod....it's too many males to be just J-Pod....WHO ARE YOU?!"

Once they got in front of us where it was just possible to make out a few saddle patches in the fading light, it was, somewhat fittingly, L87 who I first identified. "Onyx what are you doing here?!" I said out loud to myself (and Jason).

Surprise! It ended up being ALL of L-Pod (including all three sub-groups in the Greater L4s, L12s, and L54s). I love it when Southern Resident killer whales show up unexpectedly and I also love it when all of L-Pod travels together, so I was all smiles after they passed by us under the snow-capped Olympic Mountains.

Word from our friends at Orca Network is that L-Pod continued south and are quite a ways down in Puget Sound as of this morning! We hope you get a chance to see them, too.