EncDate:22/02/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:17

ObservBegin:11:30 AM

ObservEnd:11:59 AM

Vessel:KCB III

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss, Katie Jones

Pods:Bigg's killer whales

LocationDescr:lower Trincomali Channel

Start Latitude:48 49.21

Start Longitude:123 20.36

End Latitude:48 50.47

End Longitude:123 21.91

 

EncSummary:

The team had planned the day before to go on a whale search on Thursday morning and Michael, Katie, and Dave all met at Snug Harbor a little after 10am. We had been leaning toward heading north anyway but, while we were at Snug, we learned about a sighting of a few probable Bigg’s killer whales west of Active Pass. We decided to head that way first and left in KCB3 at 1022 with a stop at the Roche Harbor fuel dock on the way.  

We eventually arrived on scene about halfway between Enterprise Reef and Prevost Island and the encounter began at 1130. A group of Bigg’s were just finishing up feeding on something and there looked to be some celebratory splashing going on as we were arriving. We could see and smell a large blubber oil slick behind where most of the whales were. The group included the T90s and the T124A2s-seven whales total. They grouped up and began traveling north a bit closer to the Prevost Island shoreline. We got one series of right sides of the group before getting back on their left sides. They were cooperative as they picked up a little speed while keeping a straight line and showing lots of saddle. After two series of lefts, we were happy with the photos we had and decided it was time to continue on with our whale search. We ended the encounter at 1159 with the T90s and T124A2s in a tight group heading north up Trincomali Channel across from the western entrance to Active Pass.

While we were with the T90s and T124A2s, we had been hearing and seeing reports of some northern residents that had been hanging around the Howe Sound area for the last couple/few days. There had been a report of a resident sized group of whales in that area already that morning. That was over 30 miles away but neither we nor any northern residents were ever going to closer to each other this winter. And we had a nice day for it-at least in the lower Gulf Islands and lower Strait of Georgia. So, with a little egging from Mark who was out in a yellow boat, we decided to give it a shot and see if we could find some norther residents.