Date: 18-Sep-18

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 81

Enc Start Time: 15:20

Enc End Time: 17:50

Vessel: Orcinus

Observers: Dave Ellifrit, Astrid van Ginneken, Stewart MacIntyre, Kathy Babiak

Pods or ecotype: J, K, L​

Location: President Channel

Begin Lat/Long: 48 43.34/122 57.52

End Lat/Long: 48 35.47/123 03.21

 

Encounter Summary:

We were working in the office while listening to reports of whales over the radios. A little after 1400, we heard that the SRs were approaching Patos and Sucia Islands from the north so we headed for the boat and left Snug Harbor at 1425. After a quick stop at Roche Harbor to top off the fuel tank before getting going again, we arrived on scene about a mile north of President Channel at 1520. The whales were spread out in groups and singles heading south toward President Channel. There were multiple large, mixed, and mostly social groups interspersed with smaller groups and single individuals. The larger groups were quite active and there was a little coming and going of individuals in them. K33 broke away from a group to travel by himself and he gave us a nice back dive breach before traveling on his way. The whales were spread out from the shorelines of Waldron Island and Orcas Island. As the whales on the Orcas Island side approached Jones Island at the bottom of President Channel, they turned southeast down San Juan Channel. The whales on the Waldron Island side became the trailers as they also turned southeast for SJ Channel. K25 was the last whale we saw and he was trailing the other whales, looking skinny and a little lethargic. He was non-cooperative and surfacing irregularly so we let him go and ended the encounter with him heading slowly southeast down mid-SJ Channel at 1755.