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EncDate:22/10/22 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:75

ObservBegin:10:55 AM

ObservEnd:11:54 AM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Pods:Transients

IDsEncountered:T251

LocationDescr:OtterPoint

Start Latitude:48 17.57

Start Longitude:123 50.66

End Latitude:48 18.82

End Longitude:123 56.21

​

EncSummary:

Mark and his first mutt, Fin left Victoria harbour at 0815 on Mike 1 to survey the Juan de Fuca Strait west of Race Rocks as far as Sheringham Point. 
The conditions were ideal, with no wind and partial clouds with sunny skies. 
Many humpbacks started to be seen as soon as Mike 1 approached Race Pass, so he slowed down and picked a safe path westward less than a mile from the Vancouver Island shoreline. Mark could see that most of the humpbacks were surface feeding with very little fluking, so he continued on with the intent to stop and collect opportunistic humpback flukes on his search for killer whales.
The humpbacks' sightings continued as far as Otter Point, and Mark estimated that there were over 50 animals between Race Rocks and here.
Once he reached Sheringham lighthouse, he looped out towards the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait and turned back to the east. 
At 1055 he spotted killer whales south of Otter Point on his port side less than a mile to the north of him! As he got his camera out, he could see four animals in a tight group pointed southeast in the moderate ground swell. His immediate thought was it looked like the T252's which are often around in the fall. He got a couple of pictures of them before they finished their dive sequence and then kept a sharp lookout to resight them before they vanished, as they can be a very wiley group with long dives and erratic direction of travel.
He resighted them within a couple of minutes to the northwest of him but they were now traveling quickly westward. 
Once he was able to get abeam of them on the following dive cycle, he realized that they were the T123s, also a family of four with a bull, so understandably an honest mistake in their identity.
The T123s held their westward track for the next hour doing between 8 and 9 knots with T123A in the lead a quarter mile to the northwest of his mom and younger sisters. Mike 1 ended the encounter at 1154 south of Sheringham Point and returned to Victoria harbour. 

Note: On October 15, Dave had come across this group two days prior in limited visibility eastbound south of Trial Island on his way home to San Juan Island after visiting Ken at the Big Salmon Ranch at the Elwha River (see Encounter 74). 
On October 1, Mark saw them chasing the T252s westward for a few minutes before turning east off of Sheringham Point (see Encounter 69).

Mark later heard that the T252s were picked up near the Papa Alpha buoy (~ 5 nm northwest of Port Angeles/~ 5 nm south of Race Rocks) eastbound by one of the whale watch boats. 
When he downloaded his photos that evening, he discovered that the first whales he got distant shots of were, in fact, the T252s! The T123s and the T252s had indeed crossed paths once again.