EncDate:21/02/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:05

ObservBegin:12:08 PM

ObservEnd:02:55 PM

Vessel:Orcinus

Staff:Dave Ellifrit

Pods:J

LocationDescr:Boundary Pass, north Haro Strait

Start Latitude:48 43.26

Start Longitude:123 08.08

End Latitude:48 43.83

End Longitude:123 15.15

 

EncSummary:

After receiving a text from Jane Cogan saying she was hearing J pod calls on the SIMRES hydrophones in Boundary Pass, Dave headed to Snug Harbor and left at about 1100. Thinking it was probably safest to head towards Turn Point, “Orcinus” headed up Haro Strait. Having got to Turn Point without seeing anything in Haro Strait or in lower Boundary Pass, Dave continued north to the bottom end of Swanson Channel to take a scan with binocs up there. After not seeing anything in lower Swanson, Dave headed southeast in the direction of the south end of Waldron Island. Somewhere off Johns Pass, Dave-on a hunch, turned northeast up Boundary Pass. Several minutes later, Dave saw a male killer whale’s dorsal fin mid-channel off Blunden Island and the encounter began at 1208.  
The bull was J26 and he soon went down on a long dive. No other whales were immediately in sight. After about five minutes, J26 came up a ways to the southeast traveling toward Turn Point. J26 went down on another lengthy long dive before “Orcinus” could get to him. Another adult male showed up several hundred yards to the west of J26. This was J27 and he was paralleling J26’s course. A third adult male appeared another several hundred yards west of J27 and this was J38. Giving up on J26, Dave moved west and, after getting some shots of J27, headed toward a couple of small groups that had appeared on the other side of J38. The first group encountered included the J31s, J36, J40, and J53. This group was rolling around and milling. They may have caught a fish and were doing some sharing while moving in a southwest direction toward Sydney. To the west of this group was another small group that included the J19s minus J58 but plus J42 and J46 (J58 was seen during Encounter #4 on February 19). They were also rolling and milling but headed in a more westerly direction towards Moresby Island before swinging south. The J35s were a couple of hundred yards to the north of this group and they headed south in Haro on the Canadian side. After leaving the J35s across the strait from Turn Point, “Orcinus” headed back east to find some whales that had not been seen yet that day. About mid-strait, J31 and J40 were seen again traveling tight together but this time they were heading back north. Several hundred yards off the bluff on Stuart Island, another female was steaming north and this was J16. A couple hundred yards to her northeast, J45 was actively chasing a salmon off Turn Point. Once he was done chasing the fish, he too began heading north towards Swanson Channel. To the southeast of J45, J27 was slowly heading north by himself. The encounter ended at 1455 with J27, and the rest of J pod ahead of him, traveling north up the lower end of Swanson Channel.