EncDate: 18/05/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 27

ObservBegin: 12:00 PM

ObservEnd: 12:15 PM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Pods: Transients

LocationDescr: Spieden Channel

Start Latitude: 48 37.48

Start Longitude: 123 08.57

End Latitude: 48 37.53

End Longitude: 123 09.08

 

EncSummary:

Dave was working in the photo-ID office when he heard over the radio that a group of Bigg’s killer whales had been found off Green Point. The whales were reported to be heading west in Spieden Channel when they began attacking a sea lion. There were no confirmed IDs yet so Dave headed down to Snug Harbor and left in the boat around 1140. “Orcinus” soon arrived on scene and the encounter began at 1200 mid-Spieden Channel. The attack on the sea lion was apparently over and the whales were actively milling and acting like they were feeding. There appeared to be five whales but the two adult sized females went on a long dive early in the encounter. A small whale was breaching periodically. Two other larger young whales were also charging around rambunctiously. These three were starting to look like T46Bs when T46B herself and T46B2 finally surfaced from their long dive and confirmed that the whales were the T46Bs minus the T46B1s. The little breacher was T46B6 and she continued to breach throughout the encounter while the whales milled. Since this was a group that CWR had encountered a couple of times already this year, Dave got proof of presence photos and ended the encounter at 1215 about midway between Sentinel and Pearl Islands.