Date: 03-Oct-17

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 94

Enc Start Time: 10:55

Enc End Time: 12:00

Vessel: Shachi

Observers: Dave Ellifrit

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: Haro Strait

Begin Lat/Long: 48 27.39/123 08.36

End Lat/Long: 48 28.32/123 07.57

 

Encounter Summary:

The plan of the day was for Ken to take “Sea Hunt” to Jenson Cove near Friday Harbor to haul it out while Dave would follow behind in “Shachi” in case something went wrong. By mid-morning, Dave was waiting just east of Danger Shoal for “Sea Hunt” to come out of Mosquito Pass when reports began coming in of a group of transients near Seabird Point. Since “Sea Hunt” was running well, Ken told Dave he could take off and go see some whales so “Shachi” headed off in the direction of Beaumont Shoal.
Dave arrived on scene a little before 1100 about a half mile east of Beaumont Shoal. The group of Ts were surfing in the wake of a freighter when “Shachi” first arrived but soon slowed back down to normal speed while they traveled north up Haro Strait. The whales were the T65Bs and the T123s and they were in a loose group with T123A and T65B1 slightly behind the others. There was another whale reported a half mile to the west near the Beaumont Shoal buoy so Dave went over to see who that whale was. The single whale turned out to be T65A2 and he was traveling slowly northwest at first but then started porpoising northeast back toward San Juan Island. About the same time T65A2 began porpoising, the T65Bs and T123s were reported to have begun chasing a Dalls porpoise. By the time Dave got back over to the group, the T65Bs were in hot pursuit of a porpoise and porpoising southeast down island off Hannah Heights. The T123s were following behind by a couple hundred yards. The T65Bs eventually ran the porpoise down and the T123s joined them in feeding on the carcass. Afterwards there were a couple of half breaches and tail lobs out of the younger whales and T65B spy hopped once. T65A2 had approached the other whales to within a couple hundred yards but had not joined them in the time the boat was there. The whales were still off Hannah Heights but were now headed northwest toward Kelp Reef when the encounter ended at 1200.