Enc Date: 01/11/19

Enc Seq: 1

Enc#: 90

Observ Begin: 01:39 PM

Observ End: 03:08 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Other Observers: Sarah Patton

Pods: J

Location Descr: Race Rocks

Start Latitude: 48 18.1

Start Longitude: 123 27.5

End Latitude: 48 17.3

End Longitude: 123 31.4

​

Enc Summary:

Mark left Victoria harbour on Mike 1 at ~1115 after receiving a call from Dale Mitchell at 1030 who spotted from shore what he thought was a pair of Bigg's killer whales south east bound ~2 nm south of Trial Island (1 bull and 1 cow).
Mark went east past the ODAS marker as far as south Hein Bank before looping south and back west towards Constance Bank with no luck. He had contacted his friend Gord Rowles to keep a lookout from his 23rd floor apartment through Big Eyes and at 1245 received a call from him that he spotted what he thought was likely Resident killer whales spread out traveling east slightly east of Race Rocks. Mark had made plans to pick up a colleague at 1300 at the Victoria fuel dock to help photo ID the numerous humpbacks in the Constance Bank area so had to dash into the harbour before heading out to confirm which killer whales they were. At 1339 they came across members of J pod 3 miles east of Race Rocks heading south west and could see several others to the south that were also heading back towards Race Rocks. It seemed as though it was all of J pod and they were making good progress westward with the outgoing ebb current. At 1440 they left the lead animals as they started to fan out to the south south of Great Race and worked their way slowly north east photographing the rest as they came across them. At 1508 they ended the encounter after finding the J16's slightly east of Race Rocks. They were trailing over a mile from the trailing animals of the lead group and were actively foraging. After several minutes they grouped up and quickly made their way west past Rosedale Rock marker as if they wanted to keep up with the rest of the pod.