Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388

EncDate: 26/04/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 24

ObservBegin: 02:24 PM

ObservEnd: 02:50 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Pods: Transients

LocationDescr: Gossip Shoals

Start Latitude:4 8 53.4

Start Longitude: 123 18.4

End Latitude: 48 55.4

End Longitude: 123 19.5

 

EncSummary:

Mark was out on Mike 1 for a search when he received a report that some killer whales reported in Swanson Channel off of North Pender Island. He decided to make his way in that direction with hopes they were coming south.
At ~1345, as he approached Darcy Island, he got confirmation that they were slowly approaching the entrance to Active Pass. He decided to commit, so he altered to port and worked his way north up Sidney Channel and expected that he would get them as they were either working their way through the pass or more likely exiting the pass as the flood current would push them through quickly.
At 1424 he spotted a bull dorsal near Gossip Shoals amongst a large group of Bonaparte gulls at the east entrance to Active Pass.
He slowed down as he approached the area where he had seen it and, within a minute or two, spotted a pair of bull killer whales slightly north of him, which turned out to be T049A1 along with T123A. They were tight together and coming up in unison on every surfacing. When they dove, Mark scanned around for others as the original report was five animals seen from shore with only one bull.
He soon spotted a group of what looked like 5 or 6 females and juveniles a half-mile to the northwest, working their way northwest. He confirmed the rest of the T049A's less T049A2 and T049A3 and the rest of the T123's were in the group of 6. T049A2 and T049A3 often disperse from the T049As.
After a few minutes, T123, along with her nine-year-old daughter T123C broke off from the group a quarter mile to the west of the others as they continued their north west track in the Strait of Georgia.
Mike 1 ended the encounter at 1450 once he had photo proof of all individuals present.