Date: 05-10-2019

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 82

Enc Start Time: 10:06

Enc End Time: 10:45

Vessel: Mike 1

Observers: Mark Malleson, Duncan Stamper

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: South west of Sheringham Point

Begin Lat/Long: 48 18.5/124 05.8

End Lat/Long: 48 19.5/124 07.5

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Encounter Summary:

Mark and his sailing partner Duncan decided to bail on racing due to no wind forecasted for the day and could see that the conditions were ideal for heading west out the Juan de Fuca to look for whales. They left Victoria harbour on Mike 1 at 0830 with plans to run as far as Cape Alava (13 nm south of Cape Flattery) and then back across the edge of the Juan de Fuca Canyon before cutting across Swiftsure Bank and back home along the Vancouver Island shoreline.
At 1006 as they were south west of Sheringham Point they came over the moderate ground swell and spotted a group of Bigg's killer whales within 200 metres off their bow. Duncan was the first to see them and was certain they were coming east towards them so they sat and waited for several minutes before they resighted them again a few hundred metres to the north west. Mark immediately recognized them as the T046B's as the leucistic T046B1B is unmistakable and was with its mom and sibling porpoising to the north east as if they were chasing a prey item. The rest of the T046B's dispersed during the chase and Mark and Duncan soon could see that the T046B1's had a young seal in their sights. Within a few minutes T046B1 grabbed the seal in her mouth and put it out of their misery. The trio prey shared while they tracked to the west. The Mike 1 crew ended the encounter at 1045 and continued their track towards Cape Flattery.