Photos taken under Federal Permits - NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388

EncDate:05/12/22 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:80

ObservBegin:02:38 PM

ObservEnd:03:05 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Other Observers:Joe Zelwietro

Pods:Transients

IDsEncountered:T049A1

LocationDescr:Victoria harbour

Start Latitude:48 25.32

Start Longitude:123 23.35

End Latitude:48 24.66

End Longitude:123 23.17

EncSummary:

Mark and Joe were surveying the western Juan de Fuca on a lately rare fair-weather day when they received a report of a single male killer whale near William Head, tracking north toward the Victoria waterfront. They completed some humpback whale photo-identification near Race Rocks and headed that way.
As they reached Ogden Point, the bull was reportedly on a rare foray into Victoria’s Middle Harbour! They proceeded slowly toward Shoal Point, and soon spotted the large animal now outbound along the Shoal Point shore. T049A1 held a tight shoreline route past the Canadian Coast Guard Base and chased a seal down at the James Bay Anglers’ boat ramp in what must have been just 10 feet of water. He quickly carried on, but the distinct sweet smell of pinniped oil filled the air indicating a successful predation. The bull snaked his way out of the harbour along the Ogden Point cruise ship piers and breakwater before giving onlookers a wonderful close pass right at the light marking the harbour entrance.
As T049A1 continued his shoreline foraging just outside the kelp beds along the Victoria shoreline, the Mike 1 crew ended the encounter and turned for home.
Note: As Mark and Joe transited the Harbour to Mike 1’s berth, they came across another sweet-smelling slick, indicating successful predation near Pelly Island. Harbour Patrol confirmed their suspicion that T049A1 had departed the harbour after at least two successful predations, relaying that the animal had been hunting in that area for at least ten minutes prior to Mike 1 arriving on scene.