Encounter #81 • Bigg’s Killer Whales T19s • September 6, 2026

EncSummary: Mark and Fin left Victoria Harbour on Mike 1 at 0730 to take advantage of the perfect survey conditions in the western Juan de Fuca Strait.

As Mark slowed down to work his way past the fleet of sport fishers off of Bechey Head, East Sooke Park, he spotted a westbound bull dorsal offshore of him. He slowly trolled offshore through the salmon fishers and soon recognized the unmistakable fin of T019C. He was traveling at 5 knots and doing 5 -6 breaths every 3 to 4 minutes. While Mark got proof-of-presence pictures of him, he scanned around for his mom, T019, and his older brother, T019B. Within a few minutes, he spotted his brother close to a mile to the south, so he worked his way out to him as he kept a lookout for their mom.

As he was finishing up with a left-side proof-of-presence shot of T019B, who was doing a similar dive cycle as his younger brother, Mark finally got a sighting of T019 to the north, halfway between her two boys. She was tough to spot in the moderate ground swell and was doing longer dives than her sons.

Once Mark got a shot of her, he decided to continue west to see what else was on the horizon.