EncDate: 16/11/21

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 87

ObservBegin: 11:50 AM

ObservEnd: 02:05 PM

Vessel: Orcinus

Staff: Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers: Kelley-Balcom-Bartok

Pods: J

LocationDescr: Haro Strait

Start Latitude: 48 38.29

Start Longitude: 123 17.85

End Latitude:4 8 34.82

End Longitude: 123 14.30

 

EncSummary:

Dave was working in the CWR photo-ID office when he got a text from Jane Cogan and phone calls from Katie and Kelley about a sighting of possible SRs in Boundary Pass. Katie could not go so Dave and Kelley headed down to the boat and left Snug Harbor a little after 1100. We headed north and hoped to catch the whales up near Stuart Island. On the way there, we talked to Mark Malleson who said he found the whales in Boundary Pass while looking for a different report of probable transients. He saw the whales were residents and moved on to find something else.

We saw our first whales around 1150 halfway between Gooch Island and Tiptop Hill on Stuart Island. The encounter began at 1155 with J27 traveling down mid-Haro Strait by himself. The whales were very spread out. About a quarter mile to the northwest of J27 we saw J26 also traveling down Haro. J16 was about 100 yards to his east. J26 briefly turned east before continuing south again. J27 was then seen chasing a fish to the east of us. We next saw J45 by himself and then J39 also traveling by himself mid-strait off Spieden Island. We could see more spread out whales way over on the Canadian side off Halibut Island and the north end of Sydney Island. We worked our way west and saw J31 and J56 traveling together. J46 and J53 were also spread out in the same general area. We continued west and saw J38 by himself and then the J41s together in a group. West of them we found J19 and J22 foraging while loosely spread out. We also caught glimpses and took proof of presence photos of J36 and J37-both still without calves. We felt like we got most of the whales we could find on the western side of the strait and began working our way back east again toward Kellett Bluff. We saw the J41s again along with re-sighting J39 and J53 on our way back across. We found J42 off the mouth of Mitchell Bay and the last whale we saw was J27 off the south end Mitchell Bay. We ended the encounter at 1405 with J27 cruising slowly south just north of Smugglers Cove.

Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388