Date: 18-Sep-19

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 72

Enc Start Time: 09:50

Enc End Time: 10:52

Vessel: Orcinus

Observers: Dave Ellifrit, Stewart MacIntyre, Kathy Babiak

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: Haro Strait

Begin Lat/Long: 48 40.04/123 13.06

End Lat/Long: 48 43.23/123 13.60

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Encounter Summary:

Jane Cogan called Dave in the morning to relay a report from the SR3 drone team that they had found a group of transients outside of Snug Harbor and that they had left them heading north off Kellett Bluff. Dave, Stewart, and Kathy met at Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 0900 to go look for them. We went on a bit of a whale search and eventually re-found the whales off Tiptop Hill around 0950 after Stewart spotted them against the dark Stuart Island shoreline. The whales were the four T100s and were traveling northwest with T100C and T100F traveling together nearer to the shoreline and T100 and T100E traveling together about a 150 yards to the northwest of the other two. The T100s came closer together as they approached Turn Pt. They continued north toward Swanson Channel with a few zig zags along the way. There was one brief period of milling halfway between Turn Point and Bedwell Harbor but we could not determine whether a kill was made. The encounter ended around 1052 with the T100s moving in toward the Pender Bluffs in lower Swanson Channel.