EncDate:21/09/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:55

ObservBegin:06:20 PM

ObservEnd:07:15 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Other Observers:Joe Zelwietro

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:Becher Bay

Start Latitude:48 19.00

Start Longitude:123 36.34

End Latitude:48 18.59

End Longitude:123 36.26

 

EncSummary:

Mark and Joe departed Victoria with Fin at 1735, aiming to document the presence of some Bigg’s killer whales coming east along the Vancouver Island shoreline from Race Rocks. They reached the mouth of Becher Bay at 1820 and began the encounter with a large group of animals just west of West Bedford Island.
Some rare visitors to the Salish Sea, the T028As, were stalking a small raft of Steller sea lions alongside the T036As as the encounter began but took their time making an attack. When they did, after around 10 minutes and two subsequent breath sequences, they managed only to split the group into pairs and apparently lost interest after a few animated pounces.
This behaviour continued for the next 30 minutes, with the group chasing two more large rafts of sea lions. Though they successfully separated each into pairs or trios, the whales ultimately regrouped and proceeded east toward Race Rocks. No successful predation was observed, and the killer whales never honed in on an individual sea lion. With so many young in the group, perhaps the large-grouped prey was not worth the energy cost this evening.
Mark and Joe left the animals, passing the Bedford Islands as the sun sank beyond the western Juan de Fuca and headed for home. They ended the encounter at 1915, all ten whales grouped and moving east at four knots