Center for
WHALE RESEARCH

EncDate:21/09/23 

EncSeq:1

Enc#*:54

ObservBegin:01:40 PM

ObservEnd:02:45 PM

Vessel:Orcinus

Staff:Dave Ellifrit

Other Observers:Federica Spina

Pods:Transients

LocationDescr:eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca

Start Latitude:48 19.24

Start Longitude:122 57.35

End Latitude:48 16.48

End Longitude:122 52.26

 

EncSummary:

The team was working in the office when we heard over the radio that a couple of groups of Bigg’s KWs identified as the T69s and the T69As were found on Hein Bank. Since the T69As were not common visitors to the area, we decided to go out and get some ID photos on them before they got too much farther away. Dave and Federica headed down to Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 1245.  

We arrived on scene at 1340 about a mile southeast of the RA buoy. The T69As were the first whales we saw when we got there, and they were in a tight group heading southeast. The T69As went through two series of surfacing’s before the T69s finally came up a few hundred yards to the south of the T69As. The T69s were acting pretty chill when they were up but they were not arching at all and would go on another very long, long dive after three or four blows. The two groups zig-zagged their way southeast and south. Sometimes the T69s would come up fairly close to the T69As and sometimes they would be up to a quarter mile to the east or west of them. We ended the encounter at 1445 a little west of Partridge Bank with both groups closer together again and heading in a southerly direction.