EncDate:24/08/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:46

ObservBegin:01:30 PM

ObservEnd:03:27 PM

Vessel:Orcinus

Staff:Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers:Rachel John, Alyssa Kelley, and Molly Henling

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:Cordova Bay

Start Latitude:4832.80

Start Longitude:123 19.92

End Latitude:48 28.23

End Longitude:123 16.38

 

EncSummary:

The team was working in the office when we heard that the T36As and T69s were right across the way in Cordova Bay. We grabbed our gear, headed down to Snug Harbor, and left in the boat at 1256. We arrived on scene off Cowichan Head at 1330. The T36As were in a fairly tight group with T69C nearby. T69 was on the periphery, just a little behind the others. There was no sign of T69E and T69F but we had heard that one or two whales had been seen southwest of Kelp Reef earlier. These whales were reported to be taking extremely long dives and were not showing much of themselves at all. The T36As and T69s that we were seeing zagged to the east a couple of times but were generally heading south-southeast toward Discovery. T36A5 and T36A1A chased a pigeon guillemot for a couple minutes, taking swats at it but not too seriously trying to catch it. The whales passed Zero Rock on its east side and continued in a southerly direction in Cordova Bay. The T36As and T69C stalled out during a long dive while T69F showed up and joined T69 to the south of the others. After another long dive, the T36As had passed up T69 and T69F and were now heading southeast around Gordon Head. T69C was a little behind the T36As. Since the whales were heading down the southeast coast of Vancouver Island too close to shore to get on the good light side, we decided to call it quits. As we were leaving the scene, three whales showed up over a mile behind the T36As and T69C. This was T69 and T69F again but T69E had finally showed up and joined them. These three were traveling slowly southeast in a loose group. They were not going much of anywhere while on their long dives. T69E, andT69F were not arching much so we decided to end the encounter again at 1527 about a mile south of Johnstone Reef.