Latest Sightings

A publication of Wild Ocean Whale Society (WOWs)

Lots of Transient Orca Acrivity May 10

What a busy day! Unfortunately I never got out there, but the Whale watching and Nature tours had a great show in the rain and lumpy Georgia Strait all day today. Read on:Susan MacKay Whales and Dolphins BC May 10:7:30 am Coming out of Frederick Arm (just above Desolation Sound) 20 to 25 Orca moving…
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Transient Orca and Dalls Porpoises to May 9

The weather here was absolutely perfect for spotting whales, calm and sunny, but there wasn’t a single blow seen from my vantage point. The only item from the immediate Powell River area was hearing the California Sea Lions barking when a tug got too close to their haul-out on the hulks breakwater. My location is…
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Dalls Porpoise and Transient Orca May 7

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there! May 7:At 6:15 pm I received a call from John and Joan T. asking if I could see the Orca. Well, I had just set the binoculars back down, because although I thought I saw something, I couldn’t find anything. After the call I did locate them.…
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Transient Orca and More Transient Orca May 6

Today there were more sightings of Transient (meat eating Killer Whales. Seems like the Transients are working their way around the islands from Desolation Sound down to the US border. Today’s reports were forwarded through Aaron of Campbell River Whale Watching below.Susan MacKay Whales and Dolphins BC May 6:Orca (no numbers I’m afraid) by Sonora…
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Orcas and Contest – May 5

What a great day! Orcas, some possibly from G-Pod and Transients as well. As for something different, I have included information on a contest that could win someone a great cruise. Look for it below the Sightings Reports. Please note that for some unknown reason, my yesterday’s post did not go out to subscribers. It…
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Northern Resident Orcas and Porpoises to May 4

I received a huge surprise this morning when I heard about a Northern Resident Pod of Orca known as “G Pod” reported in Washington State May 1st. The report may be off by a couple of days, but my first thought was “What were they doing down there!” This is something quite unusual, but it…
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Killer Whales – Dolphins – Humpback to May 2

May 2:My scanning the waters has been intermittent and brief. I thought I saw some blows and movement a couple of times, but not having the time to watch for too long, could not confirm what animals, if any. Even a call to a neighbour to look from a different vantage point did not produce…
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Humpback Porpoises and Sea Lions

April 30:A few blows and a back of what appeared to be a Humpback Whale slowly moving in a Northerly / North-West direction in mid strait between Sliammon (just north of Powell River) and Harwood. I watched between 10 and 10:30 am then spotted it again, a short distance North, close to Atrevida Reef around…
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Orca Sightings and Whale Updates to April 29

April 29:AJ was out on the water today running a water taxi from Campbell River. We spoke a few times during the day with hopes that someone would locate the Orca, thought to be Transient (meat eating) Killer Whales he spotted early in the morning. All my scanning the waters around Powell River produced only…
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Whale and Porpoise Updates April 27

With all the excitement of having Northern Resident Killer Whales in our area the other day, I did forget to post the updates from farther south. I also apologize to Roger Jennings who kindly contributed the A Pod photos. In case some of you didn’t catch it, I called him Peter….well, it was a newsworthy…
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Northern Resident Orca Sightings April 25

More Orca sightings today. The weather wasn’t quite as nice as the other day, but the water was calm. The big surprise is that these whales are from the A5 pod of Northern Resdient (fish eating) Orca. We haven’t seen them around for a while so it’s quite exciting. After the last report, I kept…
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Transient Killer Whales April 23

April 23:Reports of Orca Southbound in Lewis Channel just below Teakerne Arm around 11am. They slowly moved down the channel to just above the Copeland Islands, locally known as the Ragged Islands.The weather was almost summer-like, and flat calm water to boot! The Campbell River Whale Watching tour caught up with them around 12:30;m between…
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Transient Orca, Porpoises – April 22

Transient Orcas this morning at 8:20am by Powell River, only two were visible at any time with the big male being either T054 or T093. It was difficult to tell for sure – they were not staying on the surface very long. They did cruise by some sea lions, and were on a head on…
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Humpback or Gray Whale April 20

April 20:Around 4:30 pm I spotted a blow close to the Texada Island side of Harwood Island. After rushing upstairs for the binoculars and staring out at the water for a while, I determined I was seeing things. That is, until I saw another blow by the reef off of Blubber Bay, where the Texada…
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More Transient Orca, Dalls Porpoises – Sightings to Apr 19

Guess my intermittent sightings of blows was something! We’ve had Orcas spotted in the Powell River to Vancouver Island area for a number of days. We mostly seem to spot them when they appear to be going in a southerly direction, but I do believe they turn around and are some of the same ones…
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Orca and more Orca Reports to April 18

April 18 – No reports today, but again I thought I saw a blow during one of my scans of the ocean….keep looking, they’re out there.There are many Transient (meat eating) Killer Whales along our coast right now. They do seem to be everywhere from the US to well into Johnstone Strait. April 17 –…
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Dolphin Sighting – Orca – Grays – Humpback Update to April 16

There is a slight change to the email updates which are now going out very late at night so that I can include any evening reports of the day and it will be in your email InBox first thing in the morning before heading out on the water. April 16 – I swear I saw…
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Dolphins – Orca – Humpback – Minke Updates to April 13

Report in from an Anonymous follower: April 13 – My fiance saw about 100-150 dolphins just outside of Gibsons BC yesterday April 13/2011. Unfortunately I did not receive any information on direction of travel or time of day. April 13 – No other reports from around the Powell River area and no idea where those…
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Orca Sightings April 12

Apr. 12 – 4 to 6 Killer Whales, probably from the same group of Transients the other day, were spotted between Rebecca Rocks closer to Harwood Island and heading out towards Vivian Island around 5:30pm. Their breaching and splashing gave their position away. From John and Joan From Steve, about his April 11 photo of…
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Transient Orcas April 11 Grays Update

April 11 – After the report of 5 to 6 Orca coming in my direction yesterday around 12:30 pm, I quickly got a few things organized and headed out to find them with a neighbour. We spotted them rounding Grief Point and were surprised to see so many blows. There were around 16 of them…
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April 11 Orca and Dolphins or Porpoises

April 11 – Just in…at 12:30 pm 5 to 6 Killer Whales spotted just South of Powell River close to Myrtle Rocks headed Northward. April 11 – 9 am 4 Dolphins or Porpoises spotted by Myrtle Rocks slowly headed in a Northbound direction towards Powell River. Hello Susan;I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell…
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Killer Whales and Sea Lions April 8

April 8 – “After I talked to you on Friday evening, we spotted a pod of whales harassing a sea lion, just off the government dock on Savary. We stayed with them from 7 pm until dark, and they spent the whole time circling, bumping and smacking a single sea lion. The sea lion was…
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Orca Sightings Finally Apr 5

This is the first sighting of Killer Whales or Orca in the area since January. It’s been a long time for them to have stayed away. We can only hope that this sighting report is start of more frequent sightings again. The report came in last night, so I couldn’t even try to find them…
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Orca, Porpoise, Dolphin and Sea Lion Update to April 6

These two sightings updates below just came in this evening – things are definitely heating up in the sightings department: For a third Killer Whale update comment that is attached to the bottom of yesterday’s post, click here. “Good Day.While flying from Port Hardy to Campbell River today (6 April 2011), 1:20pm,  I spotting a…
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Sightings Mar 29 to Apr 3 Plus Whale Updates

I was so excited! Finally I spotted some activity in front of Powell River. Reaching for the binoculars to get a better look, I found myself looking at a couple of sea lions with a few birds. Although they are great animals to watch, my heart sank a bit since there still have not been…
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Dalls Porpoises and Orca Report to Mar 28

Mar 28 – This morning I received a report of a couple of Dalls Porpoises just above Desolation Sound around Raza Island. Sounds like they were just foraging for food. The past two days, there are reports of two types of Orca / Killer Whales in the upper Johnstone Strait area. Transient (meat eating) Orca…
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Dolphins – Sightings to Mar 25

I can finally say we have some Pacific White Sided Dolphins returning to the area! Although it was a second hand report and received only last evening, Some ( I didn’t get any numbers) Pacific White Sided Dolphins joined up with the Comox ferry on one of it’s afternoon runs to Powell River to wake…
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Sunshine Coast Sightings Report to Mar 17

Sightings anyone?There is a distinct lack of activity all along the Sunshine Coast. Even to the point of lack of birds. This Non-Reporting is incredibly unusual for this area and time of year. All I can say is that I hope it will change soon. Our weather has been rather poor, making sightings difficult, but…
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Sightings to Mar 9 – Dolphins and Gray Whales Update

Again it has been very slow around this area, but I wanted to share a wonderful Pacific White Sided Dolphin sighting report and experience from one enthusiast. This encounter happened on March 6th around 2:30pm by Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver: DB wrote: “I was scuba diving and about a pod of 7 came to…
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Feb 27 to Mar 2 Sightings – Orca!

Even with the snow we had, we did have at least one Orca sighting! See the photo below (you might have to click on the the “Display Images” note in your web browser).   This photo originally came to me from the Orca Network, the sightings network recording sightings south of this one. They mostly…
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