EncDate:06/07/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:66

ObservBegin:06:06 AM

ObservEnd:06:31 AM

Vessel:Mike 1

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Mark Malleson

Other Observers:Joe Zelwietro

Pods:Bigg's killer whales

LocationDescr:Bamfield

Start Latitude:48 50.28

Start Longitude:125 08.73

End Latitude:48 49.63

End Longitude:125 10.45

 

EncSummary:

Dave, Mark and Joe departed Bamfield as the sun rose on their first day surveying the outer coast of southwestern Vancouver Island. Their goal was to census the Southern Residents of J Clan, but before they even had time to bring the boat up to speed, they were interrupted by several killer whales travelling south past Aguilar Point, at the entrance to Bamfield Inlet!
The animals dove as Mark spotted them, and wouldn’t resurface again for nearly eight minutes. When they did, the team were not entirely surprised to observe members of the T049As. The group has spent much of the last three months in the Salish Sea, but were last observed heading west near Race Rocks on July 1st.
While appearing restful and a little playful, the group of five shortly entered another extended dive. The team watched the whales for one more surface sequence before ending the encounter and moving out of Trevor Inlet, in search of more.
Neither T049A1, nor T049A2 were present with the group this day, which is not unusual. T049A2 dispersed from his mother and siblings on a near-permanent basis as a juvenile, and T049A1 spends only about half his time with the matriline.
Note: the T049As were observed by commercial whale-watchers off the Victoria waterfront the following afternoon, just over 80 nautical miles from where the CWR team left them at 0630.