EncDate:13/02/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:15

ObservBegin:06:01 PM

ObservEnd:06:11 PM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Mark Malleson

Pods:Bigg's killer whales

LocationDescr:Victor Hotel

Start Latitude:48 22.40

Start Longitude:123 23.73

End Latitude:48 23.04

End Longitude:123 22.03

 

EncSummary:

Mark received a call from his friend Gord at 1713 who spotted a group of 3 or 4 killer whales, from his "Crow's Nest", ~ 3 miles south west of the entrance to Victoria harbour. Gord unfortunately was on his way out the door so couldn't keep track of them much longer but estimated they would be ~ 1 nm south of the Victor Hotel/Pilot buoy at 1800. He felt they were trending east although he initially thought west bound.
As Mark was already down in Victoria's inner harbour and within 10 minutes of mobilizing Mike 1 and less than 30 minutes of arriving at Gord's estimate location, he decided to head out and attempt to reacquire them; at the very least he could confirm who they were with the last of the daylight.
Mark arrived at the buoy at 1758 and started scanning with his Swarovskis in the twilight; within seconds he saw a dorsal fin of a cow or juvenile ~ 1 nm to the south west, almost exactly where Gord had predicted!
The animal appeared to be milling so Mark trolled Mike 1 slowly in the direction of it it with hopes of another sighting before all light was lost. With another binocular scan he saw a cow and bull appear within 1/4 nm that appeared to be hunting or prey sharing a likely seal. Mark was able to confirm it was the T123s and watched them finish up their prey before the four of them grouped up and picked up the pace on an eastward track. The brief encounter was ended 11 minutes later at 1811 as they made a line for Enterprise Channel at 8.5 knots with the building flood current behind them.