EncDate: 09/02/22 

EncSeq: 1

Enc#: 11

ObservBegin: 01:01 PM

ObservEnd: 02:53 PM

Vessel: Mike 1

Staff: Mark Malleson

Other Observers: Joe Zelwietro

Pods: Transients

LocationDescr: Sidney Island

Start Latitude: 48 36.74

Start Longitude: 123 19.96

End Latitude: 48 37.29

End Longitude: 123 20.85

 

EncSummary:

Mark and Joe were fuelling Mike 1 in preparation for a survey of the area when they received a report of a large group of killer whales travelling north in Sidney Channel! They topped up the tank and made way for the Channel, departing Victoria at 1230.
At 1301 as Mike 1 entered the south entrance to Sidney Channel, Mark spotted the animals milling roughly where they were reported an hour prior. The whales were well spread, and T137A surfaced nearby to give away the ecotype as Bigg’s. The animals were clearly hunting a harbour seal, and it seemed possible that there were two simultaneous predations taking place. This suspicion was confirmed after watching the animals for a few minutes while collecting acoustic recordings from the periphery.
Shortly, the guys noted a bold Steller sea lion approach from the south, perhaps having been flushed north by T137A and his one or two cohorts, who were now well south of the action. He seemed to escape relatively unscathed, though T137D did take a brief interest, taking two swipes at it before returning to the scene of one of the harbour seal predations. The two loose groups of killer whales took down their prey almost simultaneously and the prey sharing commenced.
T036B1 had not yet been seen, but Joe had earlier noted a single animal across the Channel travelling steadily north, so Mike 1 trolled away from the feeding aggregation and they sought her out. They found her nearly a mile north of the other whales, milling, and after documenting her presence they watched her rejoin the others, now also making their way steadily north from the predation and spread into two tight groups; the T137s and T036 were slightly north and inshore of the T099s and the T036Bs. A series of left-side ID shots of the T099 / T036B grouping were collected before the guys ended the encounter at 1453 and left the whales to their northerly travel.