EncDate: 19/09/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 78

ObservBegin: 12:54 PM

ObservEnd: 02:06 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Other Observers: Duncan McCallum, Meg Whyte

Pods: Transients

LocationDescr: South of Discovery Island

Start Latitude: 48 23.9

Start Longitude: 123 09.9

End Latitude: 48 21.7

End Longitude: 123 11.0

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EncSummary:

Mark received a call at ~1129 from his friend and colleague, Cheryl Alexander. She had spotted a small group of killer whales with a new calf slightly offshore of Ten Mile Point headed south for Discovery Island.

Mark felt it was likely the T099's as they had been spotted a few days before in Saanich Inlet, and a new calf belonging to T099 was reported.

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He made his way to town and mobilized Mike 1. He picked up his long-time friend Duncan McCallum and his friend Meg Whyte at the Coast Hotel dock on his way out of the harbour. Duncan had introduced Mark to whale watching in the mid-1990s when Mark joined Duncan on the tracker boat out of the Oak Bay Beach Hotel to search for the Southern Resident killer whales one foggy morning. Mark will never forget that day when they found most of the Clan mid-Haro Strait heading to San Juan Island on a line from Discovery Island.

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The whale watch fleet had received the report of what did turn out to be the T099's so the Mike 1 crew wanted to make the encounter as brief as possible with the intention to get some pictures of the newest addition to the pod without interfering with not only the T099 family's movements but also the viewing of the passengers on the two commercial boats on scene. Mike 1 arrived at 1254 ~ 3 nm southeast of Discovery and could see the group were traveling SW.

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They ended the encounter at 1406 once they got a few decent shots of the new calf. It took just over an hour to do this as it was often tucked on the opposite side of its mom. The group seemed to be very attentive to their new family member as they stayed in a tight group for the duration of the encounter and appeared to continue their southwest heading.