Resident and Transient Orca, Humpbacks and More Sightings

Transient Orca came, Transient Orca went, Transient Orca reappeared – Powell River as I type! Thoughts are that some of the whales have been doing a circumnavigation of Texada Island…sounds reasonable from the reports. Dolphins hiding from the Transients spread to Savary Island, and a couple of new Humpback whales in the area.

Late News: L-Pod plus other Southern Resident Orca are Southbound (East actually) in Johnstone Strait! Coming our way, so keep your eyes open!!

I apologize to those waiting for the RSS feed by email – I missed the deadline, so you are receiving this a day late.

7 pm Southern Resident Orca numbering 35 Whales L-Pod are Eastbound in Johnstone Strait just below Naka Creek.

L pod was eastbound at 19:00 near Naka. About 35 animal total. Figure you’d appreciate a heads up. regards,

8 pm As I started to write this I noticed a dark spot on the water. Then I saw the blow and distinctive dorsal of Orca! There are at least 4 doing long dives and behaving like they are on some food. I immediately spotted T02C with the scoliosis of the spine – very distinctive. The Comox ferry did a sudden course correction and the whales seemed to split up and disappear.

9 pm Thanks for the call about the Orca. I think I saw 4 Orca, one with a calfpossibly the one with the deformed dorsal and 2 other large cows to the right. The big ferry rushing in like that seemed to send them on their way although I did spot one dorsal in the middle of Malaspina towards Harwood after the ferry did it’s high speed turn and came back in to dock. I went for the camera when all the tail slapping was going on and by the time I got set up they disappeared, It was worth a try.

Orca last night (4^th) between 8 or 9 pm heading North.

9:50 am 6 – 8 Orca by Little River, Bates Beach area of Comox including 1 large male dorsal heading Southbound. (see below – Dolphins report – SM)

9:10 am 2 Humpback WhalesSouthbound by Chatham Point about an hour ago. Then: Found them at 9:36 am at Kanish Bay.

June 6:

10 am Two Humpbacks by Kanish BaySouthbound. Then:

Had a small humpback whale southbound by Steep Island at 3:55 pm. Was very shy.

8 pm Humpback Whale Arial (ID not confirmed – SM) with a few Dolphins Northbound in the Narrows (Seymour) by Walcan.

10:15 am Curtis just called again. Hundreds (about 300+) of lags (Pacific White Sided Dolphins)Northbound past Bates Beach (Comox) now! He said they are a mile thick and flying North! (probably avoiding the Transients – SM)

1 pm 3-400 Pacific White Sided Dolphins at April Point, Campbell River. Left them at Yellow Point.

1 pm 2 groups of PWS Dolphinswere in the Duck Bay (south side) area of Savary Islandleaping etc.

4:15 pm 12 – 15 Pacific White Sided Dolphins off the Viewpoint in Powell River heading towards the mill area. About 10 Sea lions following.

Hello there. My sons and I were at the Lighthouse Park beach in Point Roberts yesterday, around 3:30 and we saw a few Harbour Porpoises. At the time I wasn’t 100% sure if that is what they were–they seemed small, and they never fully emerged from the water. But after looking at your website I realize that is definitely what they were! There must have been about 3 or 4. So cute! Just off the shore.

4 pm Had 6 Dalls at Hole in the Wall and also 4 Harbour Porpoise near them.

3 pm About 4 Dall’s Porpoise and a couple of Dolphins in Nodales Channel.

Thought I would get us a couple of nice Dalls Porpoise pics for the blog tonight as we keep reporting on them but never seem to get any pics of these guys up! I love the reflection of the clouds and mountains that showed up on the one guy with the water draining off of his back. (see photo above) We picked up on the nice Herd of Dalls at approx 1400 hrs in Rock Bay area foraging around in the tideline. The “Pesky Little Speed Demons” as Eric Hoyts old Cetacean book calls them were being anything but….just lazing around doing a bit of fishing in the tide rips I think. We picked up on a small herd of 6-8 Harbour Porpoise at approx 1515 hrs at Helmicken Island and then poked our noses out to Earle’s Ledge to look for puffs……but no love for us today. On our way back down Chancellor Channel we picked up a small Pod of 7-8 Lags (Pacific Whitesided Dolphins) sleeping in front of the beach at the West end of Wellboure Channel. They had there noses pointed west in the ebb tide going nowhere fast. It looked like 3 mom&calf pairs and 1 or 2 adults. That was the extent of our excitement except for a very nice mainland Black Bear. I will include a pic if you want something different for the blog!