Date: 21-October-2018

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 91

Enc Start Time: 16:19

Enc End Time: 16:50

Vessel: Mike 1

Observers: Dave Ellifrit, Mark Malleson

Pods or ecotype: Bigg's Transients

Location: East Sooke

Begin Lat/Long: 48 17.9/123 41.3

End Lat/Long: 48 16.4/123 39.9

 

Encounter Summary:

Dave and I were on our way east in the Juan de Fuca strait south of Sheringham Point when we received a report from Paul Pudwell of Sooke Coastal that the T011's were eastbound at Secretary Island.

We had left Port Renfrew that morning and had searched the Vancouver Island coast out as far as Nitinat and offshore to Swiftsure Bank and Cape Flattery over the past 2 days.

 

The T011's would be the first killer whales of the trip after seeing a large concentration of humpbacks at Swiftsure Bank as well as a large group off of Tatoosh Island/Cape Flattery.

 

We arrived on scene with the T011's off of East Sooke Park at 1619 as they were traveling east close to shore. As we arrived they headed offshore and passed through a group of resting gulls. They continued south ~300 yards apart with long dives over 5 minutes. We left them at 1650 and headed back towards Victoria harbour with a brief stop at Race Rocks.