They are in some rough weather right now. Here is a FB post from her to a friend.
Tracking Killer Whale Pod LKathryn wrote:...yeah, we survived the night. Some of our stuff didn't though. It's still bad out here
Our seas were averaging out around 40+ ft swells with winds up to 75 knots. They've started to calm down a little now. Our wind has finally dropped below 40 knots and the swells are in the 20-30 ft range now, with only a 40 ft one every now and then. But the seas are very confused and coming from all different directions
We transited north to the area where the most recent signals from K33 had been obtained before the tag stopped transmitting on 17 February - between the Columbia River and Westport. After three sweeps through that area with no detections we headed up the Washington coast Monday night in the nearshore waters. As we neared LaPush this morning, with 25 knots of wind howling out of the east, we saw numerous small blows close to shore heading south. About an hour later we were able close on the whales and confirm that we were with members of L pod. The wind subsided about noon allowing us to launch our research boat from the Shimada. About 1400 we were able to deploy a tag on adult male L95 - (see attached photo). The whales have moved offshore this evening - near the head of the Quinault Canyon (see map). We are hoping for a tag attachment duration that allows us track L pod for the rest of the cruise to gain insights about not only their movements but also their behavior in their coastal winter range.