EncDate:08/12/22 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:81

ObservBegin:02:40 PM

ObservEnd:03:42 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Other Observers:Joe Zelwietro

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:Sooke

Start Latitude:48 17.73

Start Longitude:123 42.54

End Latitude:48 18.42

End Longitude:123 50.88

 

EncSummary:

Mark and Joe departed Victoria on Mike 1 to follow up a report of Bigg’s killer whales in the Juan de Fuca Strait, near Church Rock. The animals were milling at the site of a presumed predation, before turning west as Mike 1 passed Albert Head and the commercial whale-watch vessel departed the scene.
They managed to reacquire a single male killer whale ~ 2 nm offshore of East Sooke Park at 1440, moving steadily west-southwest and quickly confirmed him as T251, an outer-coastal Bigg’s killer whale known well in recent years from autumn and winter visits to the region. He is typically accompanied by his presumed mother and sister, T252 and the T253s. As the initial report indicated four whales present, they were scanning carefully for the remainder, though building seas and dark light to the west made spotting challenging and they saw no sign of others.
T251 seemed to be pushing offshore, but with his zig-zagging travel pattern, they decided that if the other three animals had held a steadier line from their predation, they would be ahead of the bull. The Mike 1 team eased west as the bull dove and soon came across a slick and faint odour of pinniped oil which suggested they were on the right track! Sure enough, just a few hundred metres upwind of the slick, they spotted two smaller fins slicing through the surf. As they approached the animals dove and another appeared just inshore before also disappearing.
Shortly after an adult female and juvenile resurfaced steaming west at nearly 8 knots. The two animals were familiar, but not who the team expected. Instead, they were two lesser-known outer-coastal Bigg’s, T241 and T241B. These two have been encountered in the Salish Sea before but not nearly as often as the T252s and generally in the company of animals from the outer-coastal population. The female that had been inshore caught up and was confirmed to be T252.
With fading light and rapidly building westerly seas, Mark and Joe collected left-side identification photos of all three westbound individuals, turned east and ended the encounter at 1542 ~ 2.5 nm southwest of Otter Point. They departed the area slowly as they scanned for any sign of the remaining T252s but saw none and continued east to calmer seas.
Note: Photos passed along to the team from the commercial whale-watch crew confirmed that the four animals identified in this encounter (Encounter 81) were the same that were prey-sharing together off Church Rock earlier in the day. The remainder of the T252s (T253 and T253A) were not observed visually at any point this day, but with the adverse sea conditions, it is possible that they were within acoustic range of the others. Apart from a single T251-only encounter, the T252s and T253s have only been encountered together.