EncDate:19/12/23 

EncSeq:2

Enc#:77

ObservBegin:01:14 PM

ObservEnd:03:17 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Other Observers:George Hamilton

Pods:K, L Pod

LocationDescr:Sheringham Point

Start Latitude:48 18.41

Start Longitude:123 51.47

End Latitude:48 22.36

End Longitude:124 02.92

 

EncSummary:

After leaving the T137 pair, Mark and George continued west toward Otter Point, expecting the outbound group of whales would now be somewhere southwest of Otter Point, the ebb current accelerating their travel west.
See Encounter 76

 

Sure enough, less than 20 minutes after leaving the Bigg's, they spotted several westbound killer whales ~ 3.5 n ssw of Otter Point, quickly confirmed to be members of L pod! As they were on Sunday, the animals were spread over several miles, to the west and southwest from where Mike 1 caught up to them. The guys did their best to document as many of the not only spread but long-diving animals as they could and were pleasantly surprised that L87 was one of the first individuals Mark was able to photograph! The 31-year-old vagabond has spent time with all three pods of J Clan since his mother passed in 2005 and is thought to have most recently been associating with the L12 subgroup. He was not observed with the group of L4s, L47s, L54s and L72s that were encountered two days ago.

 

Just over a mile west of L87 and some spread L4s, Mark spotted a leading group of comparatively tight whales and opted to move that way. These lead animals proved to be K pod killer whales moving steadily southwest and very spread out. After photographing 11 of the 15 members of Kpod and no sign of any other Ls among them this made Mark wonder if perhaps L87 met K pod when they exited the Salish Sea last week (see Encounter #73). Whatever the case, L87 had been absent from CWR's recent SRKW encounters, and we were happy to document him today. 

The Mike 1 team left the K's ~ 5 nm south of Jordan River and opted to backtrack through the offshore animals still east of them and attempt to determine if either the L12s or L54s were present. 

 

Mark and George backtracked over a mile to the north east before they found some of the trailing L's still spread out moving much more slowly than the K's. L72 along with her son, L105, were the first pair they came across. They hadn't seen these two when they started the encounter with the trailing Ls, so they were hopeful they could find the L12s mixed in. They then located L125 messing about in a tide line and watched her briefly pick up a piece of kelp in her mouth as she slalomed her way through the debris before she joined up with her older brother, L106. No members of the L12s or L54s could be seen amongst the remaining Ls and with a little over an hour to go to get back to the harbor and the same for the time it would be dark, the guys ended the encounter at 1517 ~2.5 nm south of Jordan River.

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