EncDate: 31/08/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 61

ObservBegin: 01:28 PM

ObservEnd: 02:28 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Other Observers: George Hamilton

Pods: J

LocationDescr: East Sooke

Start Latitude: 48 20.2

Start Longitude: 123 44.2

End Latitude: 48 17.6

End Longitude: 123 40.2

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EncSummary:

Mark received a report at 1205 from Rod King on Forever Wild that J pod had been spotted eastbound off of Sheringham Point.
He left Oak Bay and headed west with George Hamilton immediately as they were doing some boat maintenance and conveniently had all of their gear with them.
They spotted the first group of animals close to shore off of the Sooke harbour mouth and started the encounter at 1328. The lead group included J38, J37, J22, J51, and J58, but the rest of J pod were close behind, and all were moving steadily towards Secretary Island. When they got within a quarter-mile of Secretary Island, J38, J22, and J37 started to quicken the pace, almost high speed porpoising for a minute as though they were chasing salmon. J51 did three breaches as he and J58 passed within a few metres of the kelp bed on the south side of the island. The entire pod then split up and slowly worked their way offshore, with a few foraging individuals double back slightly to the west. Mark and George scanned for others to the west but were only able to re-sight members of J pod that they had seen previously upon arrival when they were grouped up. J27 had fallen back close to the rear of the group that J16 and J26 had established and were also angling offshore.
The Mike 1 crew decided to end the encounter at 1428 southwest of Bechey Head as they could see that the animals were very spread out doing long foraging dives and appeared to be moving very slowly against the ebb current.