2020 Encounters

Encounter #46 - Sept 11, 2020

Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388

Enc Date: 11/09/20

Enc Seq: 2

Enc#: 46

Observ Begin: 05:05 PM

Observ End: 06:37 PM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers: Katie Jones

Pods: J, K, L

Location Descr: Haro Strait

Start Latitude: 48 29.57

Start Longitude: 123 07.96

End Latitude: 48 28.76

End Longitude: 123 05.61

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Enc Summary:

Once again, we had to wait patiently while reports of Southern Residents came in throughout the day as the whales came in on the Canadian side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Once the whales were nearing the border, Dave and Katie met down at Snug Harbor and left in the boat around 1650.
We saw our first whale at 1705 off Hannah Heights although it soon disappeared on us. To the south off False Bay, we found J51, J27, and K36 spread out and foraging. J27 and K36 briefly came together before spreading out again. Due to heavy smoke mixing with fog, we had only about a half mile of visibility. A half mile of visibility in Haro Strait would be the best we had for the next week. We headed down to Eagle Point and found J19, J41, and K20 spread out and pointed north. We could hear the occasional blow offshore in the gloom but there was little point in looking as the light was failing for good ID shots. We started heading toward home and found L91 off Kanaka Bay heading inshore toward the rocks. We briefly saw a whale offshore of L91 and backlit that might have been J31 or L86 but it disappeared and we ended the encounter off Pile Point at 1837.

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