EncDate: 11/08/20

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 36

ObservBegin: 01:45 PM

ObservEnd :03:35 PM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Pods: Transients

LocationDescr: Haro Strait

Start Latitude: 48 28.53

Start Longitude: 123 04.73

End Latitude: 48 29.56

End Longitude: 123 10.55

 

Enc Summary:

Katie called Dave around noon to report that they were out on “Western Explorer” with the T10s who were chasing harbor porpoise between Salmon and Hein Banks. Dave headed over to CWR to grab some gear only to find that Andrews Bay was fogged in. He then drove down the west side to see if it had cleared up any down there. It was looking pretty thick until about Hannah Heights and Dave almost gave up and went home. However, Katie had sent a couple more texts and said that the T10s had made it up to the flagpole at American Camp and it was still clear where they were. Dave then headed back toward Snug Harbor as the fog was noticeably clearing on the west side and finally left in the boat at 1320.

“Orcinus” arrived on scene at 1345 off False Bay. T10 and T10C were foraging way inshore off the entrance to False Bay. They went deep into Kanaka Bay (a place where T13 and T14 were held captive for a period of time in 1976) and looked like they made a kill on a probable harbor seal. The pair came back out of the cove acting like they were feeding. There were a couple of tail lobs out of both of them and T10C breached three times. The T10s then angled offshore right before they got to Hannah Heights and began heading west-southwest. They stopped and milled near a kelp mat like they had another seal but it was unclear whether they another kill. The T10s then turned northwest and the encounter ended at 1535 mid-Haro Strait as they neared the Canadian border off of Land Bank.
Dave had wanted to see the T10s because it had been thirty years ago that he had first seen T10. He did not realize until digging out old slides from 1990 the next morning that the encounter with the T10s on August 11th was thirty years to the day that Dave first saw T10! Time flies.