Encounter Summary:

Coming back from Port Angeles to Snug Harbor in “Chimo” today there was a report of ‘black and whites’ near Java Islets in Boundary Pass. The seas were lumpy and foggy in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, but as “Chimo” got to Haro Strait the seas calmed and the sky cleared a bit, making it tempting to go further north to see who was there. The whales were reported to be Transient ecotype, and T19B was definitely present – easily identified by his prominent bulky dorsal fin that leans heavily to the left. They had come through Boundary Pass toward the west and were headed past Thieve’s Bay Pender Island as “Chimo” neared Snug Harbor, so a quick decision was made to go an extra forty mile round trip and catch up with the whales in Swanson Channel. The encounter with them near Otter Bay, Pender Island was brief, and truncated by the mounties chasing me down, but documentation of the T18’s including T19, T19B and T19C, and T124E was accomplished before the bust.