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2018 Encounters

Encounter #100 - Nov 12, 2018
K44 and K34

K44 and K34

Photo by Mark Malleson

K44

K44

Photo by Mark Malleson

K44

K44

Photo by Mark Malleson

K36, K44 and K27

K36, K44 and K27

Photo by Mark Malleson

K35

K35

Photo by Mark Malleson

K37

K37

Photo by Mark Malleson

K26

K26

Photo by Mark Malleson

K25

K25

Photo by Mark Malleson

K33

K33

Photo by Mark Malleson

K35

K35

Photo by Mark Malleson

K26

K26

Photo by Mark Malleson

K21

K21

Photo by Mark Malleson

K12

K12

Photo by Mark Malleson

K16

K16

Photo by Mark Malleson

K14

K14

Photo by Mark Malleson

K20

K20

Photo by Mark Malleson

K12

K12

Photo by Mark Malleson

K20

K20

Photo by Mark Malleson

we can 
TOGETHER
HELP

The Southern Resident orcas need your help like never before.

For these 74 whales to survive, and for their community to grow, they need us to be their voice.
BECOME A CWR MEMBER; 
together we will be a strong collective voice for the whales.

Date: 12-Nov-2018

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 100

Enc Start Time: 14:30

Enc End Time: 15:49

Vessel: Mike 1

Observers: Mark Malleson, Hanna Magnusson, Bryttni Nameth

Pods or ecotype: K pod

Location: Coyote Bank

Begin Lat/Long: 48 17.2/123 12.2

End Lat/Long: 48 14.9/123 8.7

 

Encounter Summary:

At 10:36 I received a call from Gord Rowles who spotted a large group of killer whales east of Race Rocks headed for Constance Bank. He figured they were southern residents by the large group size and the fact that they stormed through the aggregation of humpbacks in the area without showing any sign of interest or disturbance.
Gord decided to head out on his sailboat from Oak Bay Marina when he heard we were on the other side of town and wouldn't be able to get to the boat for close to an hour. He felt that it would be easy for us to refind them as they were charging east towards Constance Bank on a line for Trial Island.
We left the dock on Mike 1 at 11:30 and headed off towards south Trial Island. Ken Balcomb departed Oak Bay about the same time on Chimo and worked his way towards Trial Island to help the search. He turned around at the northeast edge of Constance and headed east for Discover Island when he heard that we weren't having any luck in the 2 to 3-foot short chop. We pushed well south and started going west in the event they had been pushed south in the strong ebb or had turned around. Gord had called his girlfriend Joelle to have her look through the Big Eyes to help re-sight them. At 12:11 we received a call that she saw them south south east of Constance Bank. After close to 2 hours of searching in the choppy water, we finally got into calm enough water to the east where I could make use of the Swarovski binoculars and spotted a fin in the distance which turned out to be K21. We could see that it was likely all of K pod and they were fairly spread out on Coyote Bank traveling on a line for Admiralty Inlet. We started the encounter at 14:30 and worked through the entire group as efficiently as we could knowing it would be tough to get them all with the diminishing light. We ended the encounter at 15:49.

 

Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238 / DFO SARA 388

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