Encounter Summary: 

Jeanne Hyde called Dave at home at 0815 to report whales near Open Bay. A little later, Tom Cogan called to say that he and Jane were aboard their boat Morning Star and were just getting on scene near Kellett Bluff. Morning Star stayed with the whales until Jim Maya and Jeanne arrived on scene aboard Peregrine. Jim and Jeanne reported that one of the whales was T49C.Dave headed down to Snug Harbor and left aboard Orca at 0925. Orca arrived on scene five minutes later as the whales were still about a quarter mile southwest of Kellett Bluff. The whales turned out to be the T49A's along with T49A's younger brother T49C and were in two groups with T49A, T49A2, T49A3, and T49A4 about a hundred yards west of T49A1 and T49C. T49A1 and T49C were rolling around with one another with T49A1 often being inverted and waving his flukes in the air behind T49C. The rest of the T49A's also seemed to be in a good mood as the young whales were rolling around and splashing too.The whales were mostly pointed north into an ebbing tide and were going nowhere. They oozed near Kellett Bluff before moving back offshore a bit. T49C and T49A1 came together briefly with the rest of the T49A's on a few occasions before drifting off again to continue hanging out with one another. Even though the whales were mostly pointed north and sometimes west, they were actually drifting south with the tide. Around 1030, when the whales were about 2 miles west of CWR, they finally gave up pointing north and began heading southwest.The whales were about 2 miles south of Kelp Reef when Orca tried to end the encounter as the morning whale watch boats began to arrive around 1045. Right after Dave put his camera away and began leaving, he was called back because the whales began chasing a porpoise. Orca turned around and was able to see most of the kill including at least one ramming that sent the porpoise flying. While Dall's porpoise had been reported in the area, the doomed porpoise appeared to be a harbor porpoise. The kill was over shortly afterwards and Orca left the whales milling and feeding in the same area at 1115. After getting home and looking at the photos, there is a slight chance that the porpoise might have been a Dall's/harbor porpoise hybrid.

Notes-Comments:photos are cropped