Year 2001

E-Team

Journal

The Veins of Life Watershed Society

M3 DAILY SUMMARY:

Tuesday, July 24th - Plans to head out on the water were preempted by a very important meeting with the Marine Mammal Coordinator of DFO Pacific. The database then required input of data for a training session tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 25th - A representative from the Friday Harbor Whale Museum was transported over to help us get our database of monitoring information online and ready for reporting. Reports are generated bi-weekly and sent each commercial whalewatch operators indicating their vessels observed compliance with the Whale Watch Operator's North West guidelines.

Thursday, July 26th - David, the E team supervisor join us on board for the day. After determining the location of the resident killer whale pods, M3 and Soundwatch divided our efforts. We travelled to Beachy Head to find L pod with several commercial whalewatch and recreational fishing vessels. The whales were spread out a fair distance as they continued on their way past the outside of Race Rocks and headed across Constance Bank. We monitored not only the vessels with the whales but also made stops at Race Rocks to ensure that vessels were maintain required distances from the rocks within the Marine Protected Area.

Friday, July 27th - Whales were spotted in Rosario Strait today. Intentions were to coordinate with Soundwatch as there are often a lot of boats to monitor and approach when the whales are this area. The weather was extremely rough in Haro Strait. Experiencing some indeterminate and unexpected engine trouble we took the vessel in for repairs.

Saturday, July 28th - Accompanied by a freelance writer we spent the day monitoring the activities at Ecological Reserves and with Dall's porpoises at Turn Point. In the face of very windy weather off Victoria and in Haro Strait, vessels continued to search for killer whales throughout the day, with little success.