Sightings, Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises & California Transients!

Sightings reports catch-up. Reports were delayed due to a computer glitch and lack of internet connectivity. In the past few days, there have been numerous encounters with Orca, Humpback Whales, Minke Whale or Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Read On….and keep reporting!

Noteworthy Identification of some truly pelagic Transient Orca seen over a number of days till Augus 13th. This is an unusual sighting and has everyone quite excited. The Orca photos below had everyone puzzled for a while. "Can-Opener" as we called him, in fact, is NOT ‘Can-Opener’, read the identification email below. Also, word has it that they were last seen, prior to these sightings in Monterey Bay in April, 2011.

The BIG guy is CA24, first photographed in Monterey Bay in 1990.The smaller male is N25, initially identified in 1996 off of Santa Barbara, Ca. N25 has a key identifying scoop; this scoop is VERY similar to the one on Can-opener, who is CA60 – a HUGE male first seen off Humboldt Count, CA in 1980; they are often mistaken for each other. (Can-opener has been spending a bit of time up your way the past couple of years; I would LOVE to get any sightings dates and details of his travels). The female in the 5th image is the one that I expected to see: CA180. (Note: I did not receive the same sequence of photos, so am not sure of which photo Alisa talks of – SM) She was first identified in 1996 with N25. I do not recognize the other ones at first glance.

Photo: Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

Photo: Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

8:30 am Orca were spread out from the West end of Robson Bight Ecological Reserve to Beaver Cove, by Telegraph Cove. They travelled in smaller groups and were first heading West then East, back to the Bight.

Later in the day, they started to repeat the process, but turned back to Bight before they got to mid-Hanson Island.

10:30 am A12 and the two A36 brothers were spotted by Kelsey Bay, Johnstone Strait heading East By 12 pm they were at Camp Point, and at 4 pm they had passed Turn Point, the lower start of Johnstone Strait, an headed East up into Nodales Channel.

Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

9 am Orca reported by Port Neville. The A4’s and A5’s were caught up to by the tours out of Campbell River and by 11 am were Eastbound by Kelsey Bay.

Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

9:45 am Orca were by Swaine Point, Boat Bay, Johnstone Strait. These guys went West then East and lots of foraging.

Around 12 pm A very large group of many of pods of Orca are still hanging around the upper Queen Charlotte Strait area. Bill was with them for a number of hours off of the Port Hardy Airport.

Bill MacKay, MacKay Whale Watching

7:15 am Orca at Cracroft Point Westing along Hanson Island to Weynton Pass. By 9 am they went through Weynton and were slowly continuing West past Donagal Head, Malcolm Island.

SM

9:30 am Broken radio transmission that there were possibly Orca at Helmken Island, lower Johnstone Strait. SM

11:30 am Some Orca vocals were heard at Critical Point, by the Bight. Then some Orca ‘popped up’ and some headed East some headed West By 2 pm some were past the top end of Malcolm Island and some had made it down to Eve River, close to Kelsey Bay. SM

2 pm 2 to 3 Large groups of Orca are milling / foraging and slowly Westbound in Goletas Channel, by Chrisitie Pass.

Bill MacKay, MacKay Whale Watching

Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

9 pm A8’s and A24’s were headed West to Cracroft Point…from the Bight? And soon after, the A4’s and A5’s went West then East.…these animals do get confusing to follow, it’s as if they just can’t make up their minds – guess the food is good in spots. SM

Hi Susan,

Time to catch up from the past couple of days. Yesterday, Aug 12th we had a fantastic trip up Johnston Strait to find the A-36s/A-12/A-24s/A-11s without the 35s or A-73(they were reported further west) We found this gang in flat calm water at the Broken Islands and followed them to the west at Forward bay. I have enclosed a nice pic of the 24s.

Today, August 13, started out fantastic with a report at 9am of our BIG T (no i’d yet) with “Can-opener” (see note above regarding the ID’s- SM) and a large female. They were southbound bucking an 11knot ebb tide at Race Point. We stayed with them until 1130 am as they zig zagged there way south in Discovery Passage dodging fishing boats and commercial traffic. No kills were seen or confirmed. We then travelled North up Discovery Passage and after stopping at Chatham Point for 2min confirmed a report from Way West Watertaxi and found the A-23s easting into Nodales Channel! We followed them into Nodales for 40 minutes then headed for Fredricks Arm at the east end of Nodales Channel for a nice look at the A-8’s and A-25’s foraging. One of the other WW companies said they saw A-73 in there as well, but I cannot confirm this. From there we headed into the Stuart island area for some fantastic Ocean Rapids in the Devils Hole, Arran rapids and Yuculta rapids. Watching the Eagles swoop for Hake on the surface is amazing! From there a quick trip into Bute Inlet and home via Hole in the Wall and Okisollo Channel completed our fantastic adventure for the day!!! I will enclose a pic from the other day of the big guy and Canopener and a nice dolphin pic (photo below) from the other day as well, cheers!

Nick Templeman, Eagle Eye Adventures

4:30 pm to 9 pm Transient Orca were hunting off the Pearse Islands and Stephenson Islets. They were identified as the T55’s. Although there were some Pacific White Sided Dolphins and Dall’s Porpoise in the area, they seemed to be focused on the harbour seals on the rocks. They headed into Johnstone Strait then turned back up and out through the Plumper Islands at 9 pm. The initial report came from Neil on the Island Odyssey who stumbled upon them. He stayed with them till Jared Towers arrived to confirm the ID’s and soon after I got into viewing range. Larry on the Discovery Skiff followed them out through the Plumper Islands.

Note: a couple of the miscellaneous Orca sightings under Resident Orca, could potentially be Transient Orca roaming the inner waters. They were posted to Resident Orca since some of the Resident Pods were heading in that direction.

Humpback Whales are all over today. ‘Freckles’ again worked the tide rips at the bottom of Blackney Pass, ‘Ripple’ and her calf were over by Bold Head most of the day, and another very large whale, whose tail fluke photos I have not had a chance to look at to determine who it is, was lunge feeding by Stubbs Island and doing incredibly high tail lobs lifting half his body out of the water to create a splash almost as big as a full body breach. The krill are back and perhaps this is a way of getting the word out. There were other whales reported over by Fife Sound and from around Donagal Head, Malcolm Island, and in Blackfish Sound.

photo: Nick Templeman, Eagle Eye Adventures

Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

Throughout the day: Dall’s Porpoise, in small groups of 2 to 8 at a time were seen foraging, usually in the tide rips.

Garry Henkel, Aboriginal Journeys

Something rare occurred today; killer whales surprised us by coming up not only next to our boat, but a couple swam under our boat! We headed around Cattle Point to the west side of San Juan Island. This is where we saw the orcas. There was a small group of three that were close to land. We stopped or boat to watch when one big male changed direction and the next thing we knew he swam right across our bow. I was able to identify him as Blackberry (J27). Then more killer whales started coming to us from both directions. We watched them tail slapping and milling around, and we even saw the new K-calf (K44) with his mother Deadhead (K27). Then, out of nowhere a group of 4 whales went around and under the boat next to us and then two swam under our boat! It was incredible! On the other side when they came up I was able to identify Mike (J26). This was the closest encounter I’ve had! What a great summer afternoon.
Kristen, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris