Southern Resident KELȽOLEMEĆEN L Pod

October 29, 2025

October 29 was set to be a windy day on the water and our team had plans to stay close to home in the Inlet. On a hunch, we thought we’d pop out into Swanson Channel for a quick scan for whales before heading to the Inlet. While scanning in Swanson Channel we saw a large group of killer whales in the Pender Vessel Restricted Zone. We headed that direction, staying out of the VRZ and over a km from the whales. We turned our engines off and deployed our hydrophone while taking photos in an attempt to identify ecotype, which would determine our next move. The whales were echolocating but not vocalizing , but our photos confirmed identification as SRKW.

Knowing ecotype and being familiar with the whales travel movements, we slowly diverted away from the whales, making as much distance as possible and then transited North to Active Pass. When we arrived at Active Pass, two of our team members went ashore at Helen Point with our portable hydrophone and camera gear and our other members took our vessel to Miners Bay to tie up to ensure least impact as possible to the whales.

We waited at Helen Point for the whales to come and experienced a special encounter with L pod as they travelled North close to shore. Once they exited Active Pass, our vessel came to pick up the land based crew, and we headed south back to the office.

All photos are taken FROM SHORE with a 200-600 zoom lens.