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EncDate:29/11/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:71

ObservBegin:03:10 PM

ObservEnd:03:30 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Other Observers:Joe Zelwietro, Barry Swanson

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:south of Sheringham Point

Start Latitude:48 18.38

Start Longitude:123 52.56

End Latitude:48 17.53

End Longitude:123 54.19

EncSummary:

Eager for a late autumn survey of the Juan de Fuca, Mark, Joe and Barry met at Mike 1 late morning and left Victoria at a leisurely 1210. The made their way toward Crescent Bay and documenting 11 humpback whales along the way – they saw at least 15 – primarily feeding on krill, before continuing west toward Clallam Bay and Jordan River in search of blackfish.
Just south of Sheringham Point, the guys detected the distinct sweet odour of a pinniped predation and stopped the vessel immediately, finding themselves smack in the middle of a 200 metre by 200 metre slick of glassy, oily water on the surface of an otherwise choppy strait. They scanned all ways for three minutes but could not spot the culprits, and decided that given they had arrived from the west and seen nothing, it was more likely the animals were farther east.
Sure enough, nearly 2.5 nm east of the slick, killer whale fins appeared just offshore of their transit! The team started the encounter at 1510, roughly 3.5 nm southwest of Otter Point with a non-descript group of female and juvenile Bigg’s killer whales.
The animals soon revealed themselves to be the T046Bs, when the uniquely-notched T046B2 and her young calf broke the surface. The group actually contained two animals under a year old, T046B7 being the other healthy-looking tyke. The younger “B2B” was first observed less than a week ago, on November 25th, and appears to be well under a month old. Today, the T046Bs were joined by close relative T046C2, a wandering female who has been spending more time in the Salish Sea recently.
The whales were gently surfing the northeasterly chop to the southwest, the ebb current carrying them quicker than their effort suggested. They were in a relatively tight formation, travelling more-or-less abreast, with no dive longer than three minutes. With light fading and the animals showing no signs of imminent behaviour change, the Mike 1 team ended the encounter at 1530 having collected right- and left-side identification photos of each of the eight animals present.

Note: T046B2 was observed with a calf in late 2021, but was not seen with it again, and it is believed to have passed sometime in its first few months of life. She likely became pregnant again shortly thereafter, in late spring 2022.

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Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 27038/ DFO SARA 388