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Encounter Summary: 

Jeanne Hyde called Dave mid-morning relaying a report of whales east of Race Rocks heading east. By a little after 1130, Ken could see them through the scope from CWR out near Beaumont Shoal and Jeanne was seeing them from the County Park. The whales seemed to be zig-zagging but were generally heading north a little west of the Kelp Reef line.
Ken and Jeanne kept the whales in sight from shore while Dave hurried to Snug Harbor and jumped in Orca for its first encounter of the year. Dave left Snug at 1220 and Ken pointed him in the right direction so Orca was on the whales by 1236 a couple of miles southwest of Kelp Reef. The whales turned out to be the T101's, split into two groups of two with T101 and T102 being anywhere from a quarter to a half mile west of T101A and T101B. The two pairs headed north toward Kelp Reef.
Around 1305 about a mile north of Kelp Reef, T101B began chasing a harbor porpoise who tried to flee out of the area. T101A joined the chase but was a ways behind it. The porpoise fled west toward D'Arcy Island and T101 and T102 who soon closed the net and all four whales joined in the hunt. By 1313, the porpoise was dead or near dead and laying at the surface before T101B came up and grabbed it. All four whales soon began traveling north again in a tight group, presumably sharing the prey. After about half an hour of traveling together, the four whales split up into two groups of two again with T102 and T101A being about a half mile or more west of T101 and T101B. T102 and T101A tucked in toward both Mandarte Island and the shoreline of Gooch Island at Tom Point while T101 and T101B stayed closer to the deep water edge. Orca left the whales still heading north near Pt. Fairfax on the southern tip of Moresby Island at 1520.

16-Mar-15

1

11

12:36

15:20

Orca

Dave Ellifrit

T101's

T101,T101A,T101B,T102

west side of Haro Strait

48.31.58/123.14.17

48.42.48/123.17.44

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Encounter #11 - March 16, 2015

Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 15569/ DFO SARA 272

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