Date: 10-September-17

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 77

Enc Start Time: 08:41

Enc End Time: 09:30

Vessel: Mike 1

Observers: Mark Malleson, Hanna Malleson, Eve Jourdain, Richard Karoliussen

Pods or ecotype: L55's

Location: Trial Island

Begin Lat/Long: 48 22.5/123 18.9

End Lat/Long: 48 24.1/123 13.4

 

Encounter Summary:

I had spotted a group of killer whales from Gonzales lookout at 0715 south of Trial Island. Through the 25 X 100 binoculars they looked like a group 6 - 8 transients with 1 bull. I called my friend Gord Rowles who lives in a high rise overlooking Victoria's waterfront at 0800 to ask if he could have a look f with his "Big Eyes" to see if he could relocate them. Hanna and I picked up our friends Eve and Richard across town and after grabbing coffee/snacks we departed Victoria harbour at 0824. Within a few minutes of powering up outside Ogden Point breakwater Gord called to say he had spotted an east bound group of killer whales south west of Trial Island. We confirmed that these were the L55's and I was certain that they were not the group I had spotted earlier from the lookout as I had seen a bull in the group. I had received a call from John Durban around the same time Gord had called with his sighting to see if I was out on the water or taking the day off. He and his team on Skana were scanning for killer whales from Hein Bank. I phoned him back when we came across the L55's and told him to keep a sharp lookout as I had seen others an hour and a half earlier south and east of this group. I expected that they would come across them as they headed towards us from Hein but no such luck. We left Skana with the L55's as they were quickly traveling east towards Discovery Island and decided to head west towards Race Rocks. I then received a call from Glacier Spirit out of Port Townsend that they had come across south east bound transients at Eastern Bank. These were the T099's and T065A's which were likely the ones I had seen from shore earlier.