Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388

EncDate: 08/09/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 66

ObservBegin: 11:00 AM

ObservEnd: 03:51 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Pods: K, L

LocationDescr: Carmanah

Start Latitude: 48 31.6

Start Longitude: 124 50.5

End Latitude: 48 37.2

End Longitude: 124 46.8

​

EncSummary:

Mark departed Pacific Gateway Marina in Port Renfrew on Mike 1 at ~0900 to search for K and L pods.
He headed southeast to a couple of miles southwest of Sombrio Point and put the hydrophone over the side while having a good scan. Nothing on the hydrophone, but in the calm seas, he could hear the occasional humpback blow within a couple of miles of him and confirmed with binoculars that it seemed they were the only cetaceans around. He turned back to the west and headed out toward Swiftsure Bank in the direction he and Joe had found them two days prior.
The swell was large and fairly confused due to a big ebb tide, and visibility was limited due to fog and light rain. When he got within four miles of the eastern edge of Swiftsure Bank, he came across a lot of birdlife with a small aggregation of humpbacks and several Steller and California sea lions. With no more than a half-mile of visibility, Mark decided to plunk the hydrophone over the side for another listen.
Before he could even conclude that there were any killer whale calls or clicks, he spotted a dorsal fin at the edge of his visibility and then a few more scattered around, confirming members of K and L pods.
For the next 3 hours, he worked through the group, hoping to find some of the ones that weren't seen on the 6th. He was able to confirm L125 along with her mom, L86, although she was swimming with L83. None of these three were seen on the previous encounter.
The group worked mainly east to west, surfing down the large swell and then climbing back uphill to the west. It appeared they were actively foraging with many gulls following them in anticipation for some leftover crumbs; however, only once did he observe a gull swooping down to the water, and it came up empty-handed. At 1410, over three hours from the start of the encounter, the whales were still almost in the exact spot where Mark had found them when they vanished! He had taken his eyes off them for less than a minute to grab an apple out of his cooler, and after a long scan, while he stood up on the front of the console to see above the swell, there wasn't a single fin to be seen. He decided to end the encounter as it seemed like a tall order to refind them in the limited visibility and swell but headed north toward Nitinat on the line they had taken two days prior to see if they were repeating their behaviour. After traveling two miles north, he turned back toward where he had lost them on a track slightly west of his reciprocal heading before receiving a radio call from his colleague Matt Burnaby that he had come across a small group of killer whales three miles to the east of Mike 1. The distance seemed too far to be the same whales that Mark had been 15 minutes prior, but perhaps a lead group had pushed off to the east earlier. The first whale he was able to confirm was L72 which he hadn't seen today, nor were he and Joe able to locate on the encounter two days prior! There appeared to be a fair number of animals spread out tracking north towards the Vancouver Island shoreline. Mark could conclude that the entire group that he had earlier and a few others that he hadn't seen, such as L72 and her son L105 were also present. Once the most inshore animals made it within a half-mile of the beach, the group turned to the northwest with a north-south spread.
Mark ended the encounter at 1551 off of Carmanah Rocks (48 37.2/124 46.8) with L82 traveling alone inshore of the rest of the group. He was fairly confident that it was all of K pod and Ls less the L12s and L54s.