Enc Date: 28/11/19

Enc Seq: 1

Enc#: 96

Observ Begin: 03:53 PM

Observ End: 04:15 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Other Observers: Joe Zelweitro

Pods: Transients

Location Descr: South west of Victoria harbour

Start Latitude: 48 20.1

Start Longitude: 123 26.8

End Latitude: 48 21.9

End Longitude: 123 25.8

​

Enc Summary:

Mark received a call at 1512 from Gord Rowles who spotted a group of killer whales south west of Victoria harbour from his 23rd floor apartment building. Mark had gone for a quick look himself from Anderson Hill earlier in the afternoon and had seen at least 5 humpbacks in a brief scan with his 8 X 42 binoculars so had asked Gord to a more thorough look through his Big Eyes.
With limited daylight left Mark called Joe to see if he was near town in order to get the boat ready and pick Mark up at Fisherman's wharf. This was the only way they could possibly get on scene before dark. Mark arrived at Fisherman's dock at 1540 just as Joe arrived and off they went. At 1553 with the help of Gord who was tracking them from shore they located what looked like 6 or 7 individuals surrounded by gulls 5 nm southwest of the entrance to Victoria harbour. They immediately recognized T099B and could see that the rest of the T099's were with the T036A's. They were traveling quickly to the north east and very animated as they zigzagged their way from bait ball to bait ball. They were able to identify all the members of the T099's and all of the T036A's except T036A2 and ended the encounter at 1415 as the sun was dropping below the Olympic mountains.