Date: 21-Aug-17

Sequence: 2

Encounter Number: 65

Enc Start Time: 13:16

Enc End Time: 13:37

Vessel: Shachi

Observers: Ken Balcomb, Gail Richard

Pods or ecotype: Bigg's Transient killer whales

Location: Haro Strait

Begin Lat/Long: 48.55101N/123.23868W

End Lat/Long: 48.57201N/123.24800W

 

Encounter Summary:

We left the T99s of Encounter 64 and crossed the border into Canadian waters near Kelp Reef to encounter this group of Bigg’s Transient Killer Whales that was reported to include a young calf. This latter group consisted of the T30s and the T41s travelling north-northwest up Haro Strait from about Zero Rock to D’Arcy Island where we encountered them. They preyed upon at least one seal but the event was pretty unobtrusive with a short bout of splashing and a mostly missed photo opportunity of seal parts in the mouth of T41A. The young calf was close alongside T30B, and is designated T30B2 that was photographed earlier this year by Mark Malleson. Its five-year old sibling T30B1 was also alongside the mother, and grandmother T30 and uncles T30A and T30C were also in attendance. We left this group at 1337 as they searched the kelp off D’Arcy Island and later continued northwest past Sidney and the Schwartz Bay ferry terminal later in the afternoon. The T41s currently alive include T41 herself, her daughter T41A born in 1988, and grand-offspring T41A2 born in 2013. A grand-offspring T41A1 born in 2011 is deceased and T41A immediately became pregnant again. Not all baby whales survive, but reproduction and survival in the Transient ecotype whales is demonstrably much better than it is in Resident ecotype whales, perhaps due to sufficient prey resources for the former.