Travelling Distances of Whales

Over the past two weeks, many Orca have appeared in various inland waterways from the mouth of Knight Inlet in the north to Howe Sound in the south. Many of these Orca were identified as Transient Orca (mammal-eating Orca) and some remain as unidentified Orca meaning they could be Resident Orca or Transient Orca. A number of Transient Orca again were sighted hunting and catching their prey, which could be seals, sea lions, porpoises, and dolphins. One Transient Orca pod, the T002C’s, were observed on April 21 for a few hours as they travelled north in Sutil Channel, rounding the north end of Cortes Island, and then travelled south in Lewis Channel before ending up in Teakerne Arm. That was a distance of about 20-km travelled by the Orca in a few hours and gives you an idea of how far they roam within one day.

It is the spring migration of Grey whales as they travel from warm waters off Mexico back to the cool temperate waters of Alaska and British Columbia for feeding over the next few months. The majority of migrating Grey whales travel along the west coast of Vancouver Island, but a few end up passing through Georgia Strait and other inland waterways on their way to the North. A couple of Grey whales were spotted in Georgia Strait on April 12. The two whales also travelled relatively fast as they covered approximately 30-km within a few hours.

There have been a few sightings of Humpback whales as they also seem to be re-appearing now that Spring is here. Many pods of Pacific White-Sided dolphins were observed, with a few pods being large with about 100 animals each. Rounding our report are sightings of Dall’s porpoise, and Harbour porpoise. One pod of Dall’s porpoise and two pods of Harbour porpoise were determined to be large with about 30 animals in each pod.

WOWs works throught the year, so please continue to keep your eyes open, and report your sightings to us.