EncDate:11/06/24 

EncSeq1

Enc#:48

ObservBegin:10:53 AM

ObservEnd:11:30 AM

Vessel:KCB III

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss

Other Observers:Taylor Redmond

Pods:Bigg's killer whales

LocationDescr:Haro Strait

Start Latitude:48 37.00

Start Longitude:123 14.00

End Latitude:48 38.58

End Longitude:123 14.26

 

EncSummary:

We were in the office when a group of Bigg’s that were spotted earlier off the west side were re-found off the north end of Mitchell Bay. They were being reported as the T34s, T37s, plus a couple of the T65As so, since we hadn’t seen these whales yet this year and they were too close to ignore, we decided to go out for a quick encounter. The team headed down to Snug Harbor and left in KCB3 at 1038. We arrived on scene, mid-strait off north Henry Island, at about 1053. The whales were spread out, west to east, traveling north in three different pairs. We went to the middle pair first and they were the sprouter T65A3 and the almost sprouting T37B1. These two were socializing and tactile as they charged north in a bit of a tidal lump. They were preoccupied with one another, so we were able to get good lefts and rights on them with little difficulty. A few hundred yards to the east of them we found T34 and T34B traveling together. We got some backlit lefts on them before moving to the final pair and furthest west whales we could see. This was T37B and T37B3 and they were traveling slowly north together about 150 yards to the northwest of T37B1 and T65A3. We got a few rights on those two before deciding to call it quits. While we still hadn’t seen T37 and T34A who we might have expected to be there, the water was lumpy enough to discourage a whale search. We ended the encounter at 1130 about ¾ of a mile east of Mandarte Island. Most of the rest of the T65As had been found earlier somewhere off the east end of Spieden Island in much calmer water. The plan was to head back to Snug, do a quick crew change, and head back out on the T65As for some drone flights. See Encounter 49-2.

Photos taken under Federal Permits

NMFS PERMIT: 27038/DFO SARA 388