Humpbacks, Greys and Transient Biggs on the Hunt

Society News & Events

Summer 2016 Raffle: This year our draw will be on Canada Day, July 1st. Great prizes include Pacific Coastal Flight, Eagle Eye Adventure Tour, Stubbs Island Whale Watching Tour, BC Ferries Pass, Campbell River Whale Watching Tour, I’Hos Cultural Tour, Discovery Marine Safaris Tour, and Beyond the Road Desolation Sound Cruise. Tickets are $5. each and can be ordered through our Add To Cart button or at our information tables. Our 2016 Raffle Tickets available at our information tables at:
May 26: Sechelt at the Heritage Mall by Clayton’s – Stop by and say hello
May 28 and 29: Lund Shellfish Festival in Lund Harbour
Vancouver Island and other Locations are being worked on and we will post as we confirm.
July 1st: Canada Day Celebrations have been moved to Willingdon Beach, Powell River and we will be drawing the raffle winners there.
Full Raffle Details available Here

Web Sites are back: Our web sites are now clean from a malware attack that caused us a few days of grief. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and please rest assured that our sites are totally safe with extra security in place.

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REGIONAL & WEST COAST

In approving Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion this week, the National Energy Board said it weighed the benefits of the project against its burdens.

Among the “adverse effects” deemed to be most “significant” were those likely to impact a population of about 80 southern resident killer whales found off the coast of Vancouver Island. …

Humpback whales have been swimming into San Francisco Bay in unprecedented numbers over the past two weeks – even leaping out of the water near Alcatraz – in a sight that has thrilled boaters, alarmed marine biologists and harked back to a famous wayward whale three decades ago.

As many as four humpbacks at a time have been spotted flapping their tails and breaching in bay waters, apparently feeding on anchovies and other schooling fish during incoming tides. …

A feared viral disease proven deadly in Norwegian fish farms has been confirmed for the first time by federal scientists studying farmed salmon in B.C.

Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) has been linked to the deaths of up to 20 per cent of stock at some Norwegian farms.

“The concern is that it is a disease that hasn’t previously been detected in B.C. and at the present time we really don’t have sufficient evidence to know if it causes mortality or is a production issue here,” said Kristi Miller, part of a team of federal scientists studying farmed fish samples from sites along the B.C. coast.

CANADA

Toronto Star Researchers in Canada and the U.S. are asking for the public’s help as they continue their search for the elusive and endangered population of North Atlantic right whales….

Whales put on a show in St. John’s harbour and Quidi Vidi Sunday afternoon, spouting and coming to the surface.

One whale in particular caught the eye of many people when it was seen in the narrows, coming into St. John’s harbour.
Comments on Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism’s Facebook page said there were also a lot of seals seen in the area where the whale was swimming.

INTERNATIONAL

In February 2016, local communities and dolphin conservation networks in Laem Klat, Trat Province, Thailand, came together for their annual dolphin day celebration in an effort to protect coastal dolphin populations that have come under increasing pressure in recent years. For the local fishing communities, dolphins are a symbol of good luck and are often cited as indicators of a healthy, abundant ecosystem. …

Imagine if, when you wanted to get your kid’s attention, you called them-not by their name-but by your own. It turns out that bottlenose dolphin mothers do just that. They use "signature whistles," high-pitched, individualized calls, which function like human names. Scientists have known about these whistles since the 1990s. But now for the first time, they have confirmed that moms use the whistles to call their babies home.

In 1997, about 570 vaquita porpoises (Phocoena sinus) were estimated to occur in the world.
Now, only about 60 vaquitas remain, in a small 1,500 square-mile area in northern Gulf of California, according to a recent report.
Conservationists say that last year’s emergency two-year ban on gillnet fishing throughout the vaquita range, implemented by the Mexican government, must become permanent for vaquita population to recover. …

Open the article to view the video captured by a drone showing a pod of 30 pacific white-sided dolphins swimming off the western coast of Japan.
The pod gracefully move through the harbour in a display that looks choreographed.
The footage was captured in the Sea of Japan near the city of Joetsu on the island of Hokkaido.

The tiny Maui’s dolphin, whose evolutionary path has out-maneuvered that of the brainiest predator in the ocean – the killer whale – now faces near extinction at the hands of man. But while perfectly adapted to an open environment, they run afoul of nets and an indifferent government.
The future of the remaining 43 – 47 Maui’s dolphins left in existence is dependent upon preventing just two types of fishing – gill netting and trawling – in the small region off the coast New Zealand that this species calls home. …

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