Many Humpback whales have been sighted around Powell River. Some of them were observed to be travelling in pairs while others were travelling in a group of four. Various behaviours were displayed by the Humpback whales, including breaching, tail slapping, pectoral slapping, and feeding by bubble nets. A few sightings of Humpback whales have also…
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Reports of Cetacea where the reporter is unsure of the species happens more often than you might think. Quite often we can determine the species from more information or a photo, but not always. Since Pilot Whales are not common to our inside coastal waters, we do a bit of extra digging. Although we have…
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Humpback Whales are still high on the sightings list while we are getting a few more sightings of Transient Bigg’s Orca. Some active Pacific White Sided Dolphins and Dall’s Porpoise are around in not overly large groups, but the little Harbour Porpoise is still so easy to miss. With the nasty weather bearing down on…
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The sheer number of Humpback Whales spread out in the Upper Georgia Strait and surrounding waterways is amazing! Over many days we have had a count of approximately fifteen different Humpback Whales. The count includes: KC, Zed, Nick, Stripe, Maude and her new calf, Whale believed to be Houdini with her new calf, Chinook, Niagra,…
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Transient Bigg’s have been hunting all throughout the inner waters from Haro Strait to Johnstone Strait. Our usual T002C family pod continue to spend much of their time cruising the channels in the upper Georgia Strait. The Southern Resident Orca pods have been in and out of the inside waters by Victoria and Vancouver not…
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Cetaceans have been seen in abundance in many of the inland waterways. Although the season is changing, our water conditions are ideal for algae and fish to thrive, supporting the whales and dolphins at the top of the food chain. Our report includes a sighting last Wednesday of a pod of approximately 50 Dall’s porpoises…
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Last Friday, there was a rare occurence when a large pod of approximately 22 Transient Biggs Orca formed and was observed in Discovery Passage. Within the pod, there were T18s, T19B, and T60s. The Orca were seen off Cape Mudge in the morning, made their way Northward passing Campbell River, and moved into Johnstone Strait…
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Humpback Whales have been grouping up in various locations while staying clear of many of the Transient Bigg’s Killer Whales that have been transitting areas. Southern Resident Orca are still in the lower Strait of Georgia while the Northern Resident pods appear to be in our upper coastal regions. Pacific White Sided Dolphins have regrouped…
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Sea Otters are not a common sight in our coastal inner waters, but the past few years they have been showing up. The Transient Bigg’s Orca, the meat eaters, sometimes take them, but they certainly have been taking seals and hunting Pacific White Sided Dolphins. The Humpback Whales try to avoid confrontation with the Bigg’s,…
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Transient Bigg’s Orca have been up and down the Georgia Strait with a memorable stop in front of Powell River where a Harbour Seal the T036s and T036As were playing with, as they do prior to a kill, hopped on the back of a boat to hide. It was wonderful to see that the numerous…
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Many sightings of Transient Orca have been reported, with a few observers being fortunate to see some of the Orca hunting their prey. The Transients are in upper Georgia Strait and the inland waters while the Northern Resident Orca and Southern Resident Orca have been observed in their normal ranges at opposite ends of Vancouver…
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We have at least two sets of Mom and calf Humpback Whales being observed daily for the past while. The little ones practice their breaching, usually after being fed, which has been a topic of discussion as to why Humpbacks breach. They actually do look as if breaching is just a fun thing to do.…
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Humpback Whales have been returning to our inner waters with daily increases in sightings of different individuals, including calves. We had a report of some Transient Bigg’s Orca even attempting to attack a calf in the Sooke area. When more adults came to protect the calf, the Orca thought better of tackling these larger mammals…
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What a wonderful surprise to hear about a possible Fin Whale appearing just off Comox one evening last week. Having a Fin Whale within the inside waters is extremely rare and must have delighted a few lucky observers. Unfortunately we have no confirmation of the report, but our closest possibility is a Minke Whale report.…
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Many sightings of whales and dolphins have taken place in Johnstone Strait, upper Georgia Strait, Discovery Passage, and other inside waterways. Northern Resident Killer Whales have been sighted more frequently during the past week. Harbour porpoises were seen in various areas and one Minke whale made a rare appearance in Saanich Inlet. As usual, our…
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Many Bigg`s Orca and Humpback whales remaining in the Southern half of Discovery Passage for extended periods of time. Resident Orca (Northern and Southern) have been sighted as well large pods of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins in the inside waters. Ivan Ng, Volunteer, Wild Ocean Whale Society A42s swimming through the mist Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys…
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As we publish this report, some of the Northern Resident Killer Whales have made their way down into Johnstone Strait. Being harassed by Pacific White Sided Dolphins is a very good indicator of the Resident or fish eating Orca. The Dolphins tend to hide when the Transient Bigg’s are around as they are meat eaters…
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Resident Humpback Whales KC and Arial keep having a good time still in Discovery Passage. Southern Resident J-pod had stayed out of the Georgia Strait, but have finally come back into our inner waters – more in the next report. More Transient Bigg’s Orca are showing up, but the T002Cs are staying around their favourite…
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Transient Bigg’s Orca family known as the T002Cs have been staying in the upper Georgia Strait and coming close and briefly mixing with a few other Bigg’s. No Resident pods of Killer Whales reported in any area along our inside waters. Humpback Whales, in particular the two siblings BCY0291 KC and BCY0767 Arial keep putting…
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Note to Safari browser users:Apple software upgrades this week are preventing images from displaying on this site. To resolve the problem, please clear your Safari browser cache. On a Mac this is in Safari preferences. On iPad and iPhones, use the Settings app, Safari, Clear History and Website Data. Southern Resident Killer Whales are staying in…
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From Northern Resident Killer Whales to Southern Resident Killer Whales, Bigg’s Orca, Humpback Whales, Minke Whales, Pacific White Sided Dolphins and a few Porpoise to finish the report. Although we are missing a couple of species, such as Grey Whales and a few rarer ones in our report, this report still covers a lot of…
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What a pleasure to see yet another returning Humpback Whale. And finally one by Powell River. Houdini, oficially BCX0022, has been one of our most prolific Humpbacks. She has many surviving offspring including KC who last appeared to head in the direction of his Mom. It will be great to hear if they do meet…
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Some of our regular Humpback Whales are staying in and around our area once again. It’s wonderful to know that they call our inside waters their Summer homes. Of the usual whales, KC short for Kelp Creature is the most notable and easily recognized having survived a boat strike leaving his dorsal split. Stripe and…
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Transient Bigg’s Killer Whales known as the T010s and one known as T077A with some very unique marks on the trailing edge of his big dorsal have been travelling and hunting around together from mid Georgia Strait continuing all the way out West of Johnstone Strait. While the T002Cs are hanging around Desolation Sound again.…
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It’s not often we see Grey Whales in the upper Georgia Strait, but we have seen more of them in the past couple of years. Nice to see them passing through our waters again. Once the Humpback Whales started to show up last week, they seemed to appear all over the place. We know we’ve…
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As anticipated in the last update, more Humpback Whales are working their way back into the upper sections of Georgia Strait with some headed into Johnstone Strait and surrounding channels. Transient Bigg’s are being seen in various channels and do not appear to be staying in any one area for long at the moment. The…
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A couple of Humpback Whales finally showed up breaching off Campbell River. This should mean we’ll be seeing more of them in the upper Georgia Strait, so keep your eyes open and please remember to let us know. Transient Bigg’s have been around as well as a J-Pod, Southern Resident Killer Whale report. Some Pacific…
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As we post our Sightings Update and Maps there are more reports of Transient Bigg’s Killer Whales by Campbell River including T087 who appears to have joined up with another six whales while another group is a bit farther along. We will post the reports and photos in our next update. There were rumours of…
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A Humpback Whale seems to have found some good food, presumably herring, to feed on in the Vancouver area still. Our volunteer Ivan was kayaking and managed a short video clip for us, while Kristy Wright managed to get video of the whale breaching. Once the big rumblings of earthquakes stopped, more whales and dolphins…
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Transient Bigg’s Orca, T075s and T002Cs have graced our waters again. T075s are not frequent visitors to this area of the Georgia Strait, but T002Cs were jokingly dubbed our `Resident` Transients in previous years from their staying in the Strait. A Humpback Whale has certainly made waves in the Vancouver area, while Pacific White Sided…
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