EncDate:01/10/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:63

ObservBegin:10:44 AM

ObservEnd:01:07 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Other Vessel:

Staff:Mark Malleson

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:South of Otter Point

Start Latitude:48 16.10

Start Longitude:123 52.62

End Latitude:48 17.34

End Longitude:123 44.73

 

EncSummary:

Mark and Fin left Victoria harbour on Mike 1 at 0930 to survey the Juan de Fuca with hopes of finding some of the "High T's" from yesterday or perhaps others (see Encounter 61).
He headed south of Race and went west out the middle of the Juan de Fuca Strait.
With most of his effort scanning to the south towards the U.S. side, as Mark was south of Sheringham Point at 1044, he spotted a flash of white water less than a mile to the north and soon confirmed a group of 4 or 5 females and juvenile killer whales surfing east in the 2-metre swell. As he approached, he could see a few more ~ .5 nm further north, paralleling them.
Mark eventually confirmed members of the T046Bs as he paralleled along with them at 8 knots, and after a few minutes, they picked the pace up to 11 knots, with T046C2 leading the charge. With hopes that their "High T" friends from the day before were perhaps the ones to the north or nearby, Mark went to investigate as a commercial whale watch boat arrived from the south to watch the now spread out T046Bs along with T046C2.
After a couple of minutes of scanning, while Mark stood on the front of the console to get a bit more height to see above the moderate swell, he reacquired the ones to the north and confirmed it was the three T046B1s with no sign of any others in the area.
These three angled towards Sooke, and at 1215, they stalled out as they came across a baby seal laying in a kelp raft ~2.5 nm southwest of Secretary Island while the rest of the T046B's who were now reported well to the southeast east continuing steadily eastward.
Mark stayed with the trio of T046B1s and watched them go after what proved to be the feistiest seal Mark had ever seen preyed upon. It was interesting how careful they were as they circled the kelp raft, occasionally blowing bubbles from underneath, attempting to dislodge it from its safe haven.
Every time one of them approached, the young seal would growl at them and occasionally grab kelp strands in its mouth to shake at its foe. 
Remarkably, after over 50 minutes of hunting what seemed like a determined target, they left it untouched and moved on.
Mark ended the encounter here at 1307.