Date: 27-Aug-21

Sequence: 1

Encounter Number: 59

Enc Start Time: 12:15

Enc End Time: 13:11

Vessel: Orcinus

Observers: Michael Weiss, Charli Grimes

Pods or ecotype: Transients

Location: South side of Lopez Island

Begin Lat/Long: 48 24.394 N/122 57.008 W

End Lat/Long: 48 25.002 N/122 49.043 W

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Encounter Summary:

In the mid-morning, a shore report from Vancouver Islands indicated that a group of five killer whales, with a single adult male, were eastbound from Discovery Island, headed towards False Bay. The whales were reported as spread out, and this combined with their travel pattern made Michael and Charli suspect that they may be southern residents inbound from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As they prepared to go investigate on Orcinus, the whales were identified over the radio not as southern residents, but as members of the T60 matriline. Michael and Charli decided to deploy anyways, as in their last encounter with this group they had focused on drone operations, and were not satisfied with the photo IDs they had gotten on this group.

Michael and Charli left the dock at 11:32, and headed south along the west side of San Juan Island. During the team’s transit, the whales had altered their course further to the south, and by the time the team arrived at 12:15 the whales were approaching Iceberg Point. While originally reported as spread, the T60s (without T60D and T60E, who have been travelling separately) along with T2B and T59 had grouped up. When they hit the Lopez Island shoreline, they turned right, heading further east along the southern side of the island.

The team paralleled them as they stuck close to shore, moving in for a photo ID pass as the whales approached the entrance to Aleck Bay. The whales were close to shore, moving in a tight group. T60 and T60G stayed close together, while T60C was glued to T2B. As the whales passed Hughes Bay, the team slowly went behind them to get on their other side, hoping to get some usable left-side photos despite the fact that the photos would be fairly back-lit. The whales went on a long dive, and next came up several hundred yards from the vessel, approaching the western tip of Colville Island. The team caught up with them as they patrolled the northern side of the island, allowing the team to get a few backlit lefts. When they got to the eastern tip of the island, the whales stuck to the shoreline, circling the island. The team left = at 13:11, as the whales hunted seals in the kelp along the rocky shore.

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