Date:11-Jul-17

Sequence:1

Encounter Number:50

Enc Start Time: 14:15

Enc End Time: 15:08

Vessel: Orcinus

Observers: Dave Ellifrit and Michael Weiss

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: Haro Strait

Begin Lat/Long: 48 38.23/123 14.70

End Lat/Long: 48 41.58/123 15.23

 

Encounter Summary:

Early afternoon, Mark Malleson called to report that he had just found a previously unfound group of transients near Kelp Reef that Jeannie Hyde had seen from shore earlier heading north in Andrews Bay. Dave and Michael met down at the boat and left Snug Harbor at 1350. We arrived on scene at 1415 about a mile and a half south of Tiptop Hill on Stuart Island to find T37, the T34s, the T37Bs, and the T46s spread out in singles and small groups heading slowly north just on the Canadian side of the border. Both T34 and T37B were traveling with their new calves. It is hard to say how old exactly the calves are but they both still have hints of fetal folds so they probably are less than two months old.
The singles and small groups began to form up and by 1435 all twelve whales were in a single group that continued to travel slowly north up Haro Strait toward Turn Point. We left the whales still pointed northeast about a mile west of Turn Point at 1508.