Two male killer whales encountered in the fog

EncSummary: Mark and Rachelle left Victoria Harbour on Mike 1 at 1115 with plans to head west and survey the Juan de Fuca. There had been a report of a pair of killer whale bulls eastbound off of Victoria’s waterfront at 0925, but the fog had rolled into Haro Strait and Oak Bay from the north, and it would be a tall order to locate them.

However, with a timely shore-based sighting of the two bulls seen on the north side of Chatham Island at Fulford Reef, Mark decided to head that way first and attempt to get a quick documentation in. He had seen a picture that was posted online that looked like one of the whales was 18-year-old T049A2, but the other bull’s identity remained a mystery.

The Mike 1 crew entered thick fog at Trial Island, but with the recent sighting at Fulford Reef, Mark was optimistic that they could locate them. With 1/4 nm visibility, they stopped at Sea Bird Point, the southeast corner of Discovery Island, and scanned around while listening for blows. After several minutes of listening in the calm seas and still air, they moved towards the last reported location with hopes these two lads were hunting seals in the rock pile at Fulford Reef. With no signs of them here and still a fresh trail, Mark decided to take a line for Kelp Reef and stopped every half a mile for a listen as visibility was now less than 300 yards. After a couple of stops to listen with no sounds, and now an hour since the duo were last seen at Fulford Reef, Mark decided to get to three miles north of the reef for a final scan/listen before aborting the search. Bingo! The distinctive right-hand lean of T049A2’s dorsal appeared visually on Mike 1’s port bow ~ 4 nautical miles south of the Kelp Reef marker and a half mile short of where they were going to stop for their final listen.

Before Mark could get a picture of T049A2, he disappeared from the surface. Mark and Rachelle sat and listened for close to three minutes before hearing a faint blow off to the east of them. After several minutes of tracking the blows, the distinctive dorsal fin of T087 appeared off Mike 1’s bow!
T087 is the oldest male Bigg’s in the community, estimated to be in his 60s.

After several minutes tracking T087, T049A2 reappeared and came to join his new traveling companion. The crew shadowed these two from a distance for another 30 minutes before ending the encounter at 1321. The two lads were last seen heading northwest for the reefs west of the Kelp Reef marker.