Date: 12-September-2019

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 70

Enc Start Time: 08:09

Enc End Time: 09:59

Vessel: Mike 1

Observers: Mark Malleson, Florian Graner

Pods or ecotype: K pod, L pod

Location: Port Renfrew

Begin Lat/Long: 48 31.8/124 31.6

End Lat/Long: 48 31.7/124 42.3K

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Encounter Summary:

Mark and Florian left Port Renfrew at 0755 and within 10 minutes as they reached the mouth of Port of San Juan they spotted west bound killer whales ~ 1.5 nm south west of Owen Point. The first whale they identified was K35 and could see that there were a a fair number of animals spread out.
They worked their way along with them for close to 2 hours with hopes they would spot the L12's in the mix as they were the only group that the team hadn't found over the last few days.
The weather had now changed and with the moderate south east winds, swell, slight fog and now heavy rain Mike 1 decided to end the encounter at 0959. They were now ~ 5 nm south south east of Carmanah Point and could see the whales were pushing hard on a line for Swiftsure Bank.
Mike 1 pushed east to catch up to Springtime who had continued east after leaving Port Renfrew to head for home.