My first ship-based marine mammal survey, July 25, 2009: Day 2 Transient and Northern Resident killer whales

We started this morning with our first sighting of a single male ‘Transient’ mammal eating killer whale (Orcinus orca) T162 (DFO Transient catalogue) at around 0900. He’s a cool looking male with a big nick at the bottom of his dorsal fin. Within minutes of spotting him another group of killer whales was spotted and it ended up being some of the northern Resident killer whales including the R4s and R18s. They were a few miles south of Munro Island and we had a nice sighting watching them from the ship and the FRC was launched for photo ID to be done on the group.

Then, just after dinner this evening, we had another sighting of northern Resident killer whales in Loreto Sound, at 1830, and this group included the A11s, D9s, R4s (again!) and the R31s. In total there were 4 encounters of 34 different killer whales today!

View from the bridge of the FRC (Fast Recovery Craft) on the port deck

Two male Northern Resident Killer Whales traveling together

CCGS Tully Helicopter deck as seen from the 'monkey's island' above the bridge

Observers entering data on the bridge

view of the our evening group of Northern Resident killer whales (A11s, D9s, R4s and R31s) from the deck of the CCGS Tully

Northern Resident Killer Whales really like to spyhop

So many spyhops!

Northern Resident Killer Whale spyhopping with the CCGS Tully in the background

Photo taken while on the FRC for photo-ID data collection

View of Northern Resident Killer Whales with CCGS Tully in the background

Head on shot of male Northern Resident Killer Whale

Tail slap!

Northern Resident Killer Whales in a tight group

Northern Resident Killer Whales

Please note: most of these photos were taken under a DFO research permit using a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera with a 300 mm lens and have been cropped.