Date: 03-Apr-18

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 23

Enc Start Time: 09:43

Enc End Time: 12:14

Vessel: Chimo

Observers: Ken Balcomb

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: Haro Strait

Begin Lat/Long: From shore at CWR

End Lat/Long: 48 33.7N/123 12.59W

 

Encounter Summary:

The day began with Jeanne Hyde calling me a little after 0900 to let me know that she was seeing T2Cs travelling slowly north in Haro Strait not very far from shore. Ken first saw them at 0943 about a mile distant off Sunset Point in a nice little family cluster in very slow travel mode. T2C2 would occasionally lag behind the group, and the newest calf (T2C4) would often be the first to surface. There seemed to be no rush to go anywhere. Ken had scheduled to go to Port Angeles in mid-day, so he ran a few errands before he set out in “Chimo” from Snug Harbor at 1146. The wind had increased a bit and the sea was choppy by then, but the whales had not gone far. One of the whale-watch boats had spotted about 60 Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) about a mile south of Kelp Reef, and the T2Cs turned toward them when in mid-strait off Kellett Bluff. This was going to be a quick pass by the whales for photo-identification confirmation, and then “Chimo” would head on to Port Angeles before the wind picked up more velocity. Just then, Mark Malleson encountered J pod heading south in Haro Strait from near Stuart Island so the encounter with the T2Cs was ended and “Chimo” headed back toward Kellett Bluff to see who in J pod was on the eastern flank while Mark photo-documented a few J pod members on the western flank of a very spread out J pod travelling and foraging south (see Encounter 24).

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