Date: 16-Jul-19

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 47

Enc Start Time: 12:15

Enc End Time: 13:00

Vessel: Orcinus

Observers: David Ellifrit, Michael Weiss

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: Waldron Island/Boundary Pass

Begin Lat/Long: 48 41.14/123 04.05

End Lat/Long: 48 42.48/123 07.39

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Encounter Summary:

In the late morning, Dave received reports of a relatively large group of unidentified transients moving south down President’s Channel. At 1145, Dave and Michael left the dock and headed northeast towards the report, and arrived on scene at 1215 between Pt. Disney and Sandy Point on the southwest side of Waldron Island. From a distance, it was clearly a large group of whales with a single adult male, travelling fairly spread out. After a few passes, Dave identified the group as the T65As and T77s, although T65A2 was not present. In the last month, T65A2 has spent a good deal of time apart from the rest of his matriline travelling with his aunt T65B, so this was not particularly surprising. The whales coalesced into two groups, with the matrilines mixed. The whales moved fairly quickly, making it difficult to match their speed to get to the correct angle for photo-ID. Eventually the groups came together into a single tight group as the whales entered Boundary Pass. The team had received reports of year another group of not confidently identified Transients near Matia Island. Once they were satisfied that they had gotten shots of all individuals present, the team left the scene at 1300 to observe this second group (see encounter 48). When the team left, the whales were about 2 miles west of Blunden and were pointed towards Moresby.