Enc Date: 05/11/19

Enc Seq: 1

Enc#: 92

Observ Begin: 09:25 AM

Observ End: 12:20 PM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers: Katie Jones

Pods: L

Location Descr: Haro Strait

Start Latitude: 48 34.50

Start Longitude: 123 12.00

End Latitude: 48 31.00

End Longitude: 123 11.50

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EncSummary:

Dave received several calls from several people on the morning of November 5th reporting SR calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophone. We later received word from Jeanne Hyde that she was seeing dorsal fins in Haro Strait from Lime Kiln. Dave and Katie met at Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 0915. We saw a whale almost immediately and this turned out to be L105 who was slowly heading north just outside the mouth of Mitchell Bay. L105 was foraging and he soon charged off to the west and went on a long dive. Another whale was inshore of us and made it to Smugglers Cove and this turned out to be L72. There were several other whales in loose pairs further south off Sunset Point. By about 0945, all the whales had turned around and were now heading south. Off Bellevue Point, we found a playful threesome that included L108, L117, and L122 who were rolling and splashing around with one another. Other whales were starting to pop up off Bellevue Point including L54, L88, and L90 and the small groups began to join up with one another.
It appeared that we only had members of the L47s, L54s, L72s, plus L88 and L90 in the area. Several people reported hearing faint J pod calls on the hydrophone in the early morning so we did a search down to False Bay to see if there were more whales down there. We could not find any whales in the False Bay area and boats coming from the south end of SJI and from Victoria were not seeing any other whales either. If J pod had been out there somewhere, they did not get found on the 5th. We headed back to the L pod whales after about a 45 minute search to find them still about a mile and a half off Lime Kiln. All thirteen of the whales present were in a single tight group moving slowly south. We ended the encounter in that same general area at about 1220.