Where is J Pod

Orcanetwork reports:
We recently received this email from Scott Veirs of Beam Reach:
Hi Susan and Howie, The Beam Reachers are out at Port Angeles today (4/28), listening for some incoming residents. I've been mulling over my observations from last year about springtime return patterns, and looking a bit deeper into your archives.
It seems like we have now set a record for continuous days with no J pod sightings/hearings in April. We're at about 35- 38 as far as I can discern! Am I right in thinking that in a couple days we'll have seen zero residents in April for the first time ever?
Scott Veirs, Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School

Orca Network has also noticed the absence of J pod reports lately. This time of year whale reports are often few and far between, but J pod has historically been the pod that stayed around and was sighted at least once in Salish Sea waters every month of the year.

J pod has not been reported since March 20th -that means April 2009 is the first April with no reported sightings of J pod in the Salish Sea, & we are now up to 44 consecutive days with no sign of them, according to Orca Network sightings archives.

In looking back at the Annual Arrival and Departure tables compiled by Rich Osborne on the Whale Museum website, you can see the change taking place over the past few years. Since 1978 when the data was collected for all of J, K & L pod, J pod had been seen every single month of the year, every year, until 2005, when they weren't seen or reported in February. In 2006 & 2007, they weren't seen/reported in January. But every single April (& March) for the past 31 years they have shown up - so this does seem to be a disturbing trend.

Orca Network's Sightings Archive Summaries list all the sighting reports we have received, and can be searched with Google Search to look for other trends. It seems all 3 pods spent less time off the San Juans this past summer, and headed out to the ocean (or up to BC? or??) more than they have in past years, though we haven't had time to look at the exact count & compare data for this yet.

But it seems there are some trends these past years, where the whales are spending less time in the Salish Sea in all seasons. No one knows why, though our guess is that it is likely due to lack of food (salmon), which often seems to be the driving force behind their travels.

What better case can be made for salmon restoration and recovery efforts?!