EncDate: 10/06/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 38

ObservBegin: 15:39

ObservEnd: 15:48

Vessel:Chimo

Staff: Ken Balcomb

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:

Start Latitude: 48 41.21N

Start Longitude: 123 06.02W

End Latitude: 48 42.19N

End Longitude: 123 05.23W

 

EncSummary:

At 1422, Ken and “Chimo” departed the T65As, leaving them to several PWWA vessels following them at very respectful distance. The trunk radio crackled that the T123s were maybe going west toward the Canadian border, so Chimo sped up Rosario Strait to Thatcher Pass and thence to and through Harney Channel to San Juan Channel, by which time the radio crackled that the whales were following an irregular path between Flattop Island and Sandy Point, Waldron Island. Hooray! I might catch up before they hit the border in Boundary Pass! At 1533, I saw fins about two miles from me and a mile from a WDFW Enforcement vessel drifting at idle in the glass calm water we used to call “Minke Lake”. I slowly approached the whales, the WDFW vessel departed toward San Juan Channel, and then it was just me and a sailboat a quarter mile or so distant from the whales. As luck would have it, the whales dove and came up about six minutes later coming directly to “Chimo”. I spent nine minutes taking photos of both sides of T123, T123A, T123C, and T123D mostly at odd angles while they were in my vicinity, before I left at 1548 to get to Snug Harbor. There were no predation events observed, and it was a beautiful day.