EncDate:08/03/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:08

ObservBegin:01:29 PM

ObservEnd:02:37 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:Boundary Pass

Start Latitude:48 42.85

Start Longitude:123 07.69

End Latitude:48 41.93

End Longitude:123 07.87

 

EncSummary:

Mark left Victoria harbour at 1145, tempted to head north to follow up on a 0729 shore sighting from his friend and colleague Rachelle Hayden. She saw a large group of killer whales heading southeast and spread out in the Strait of Georgia a few miles northeast of the east entrance to Active Pass. With a logical assumption that it would be J pod with a large spread out group, less than two hours later, at 1018, she confirmed that it was not by spotting all of J pod northbound as they went into Porlier Pass from Trincomali Channel. 
As Mark got up to speed once he exited Victoria Harbour, he received a report at 1156 that Bigg's were being heard on the SIMRES (Saturna Island Marine Research and Education Society) hydrophone at Saturna Island, so he decided to commit to a search into Boundary Pass to look for them. 
At 1339 Mark stopped for a binocular scan once he was northeast of Turn Point and spotted several blows and dorsal fins in the middle of Boundary Pass.
There were many animals fairly spread out and nondirectional but seemed quite animated, especially the juveniles who were playing with each other and zig-zagging around as the rest of the animals could be seen in several groups making up what looked like well over 20 individuals in total. The first bull that Mark saw looked like T060C but was soon confirmed as the 23-year-old T123A, who has a similar fin shape and almost identical notch in the trailing edge of the top third of his fin. As Mark had seen the T060s a few days ago on March 3, with the T109B's, he had them on his brain! The 21-year-old bull T002C1 also appeared, and a third bull, 31-year-old T124C, was out on the periphery of the aggregation of the animals.  
The distinctive fin of T037 was seen, so Mark figured the T034's were likely there with the rest of the old gal's team, the T037B's. Soon, T034 paraded past Mike 1 in tandem with the very distinctive nicked-up fin of T099B. 
T036A1 then appeared with her distinctive nicks in her fin, so the list added up to close to 30 individuals!
Four young ones under two years old were in the mix: T002C5, T036A5, T099E, and the newest one, just a few months old, T037B3. 
Mark decided to end the encounter at 1437 as a couple of the commercial whale watch boats had arrived, and he felt he had proof of presence of all matrilines present. 
He heard later that the T002Cs had split from the group and were last seen hunting porpoises in San Juan Channel while the rest of the group were generally still milling about in the middle of Boundary Pass.
After further review of the roll call, it turned out to be a count of 27 individuals! A true Bigg's Fest.

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Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 21238/ DFO SARA 388