Dolphins, Orca and Harbour Porpoise

Pacific White Sided Dolphins top the list today! At the bottom of all the Sightings reports there are some links together with a request from Erin Ashe, one of the Dolphin Researchers…take a look. The Transient Orca (Bigg’s Killer Whales) have done their highly tuned disappearing act, but there are sightings reports below! Only Harbour Porpoise round out the cetacean sightings report. As an aside, I had never mentioned an unusual sighting of large, Monarch looking, butterflies flapping their way across a couple of ocean channels….interesting. I had never seen them do that before, but guess that’s how they make those long migrations. I also posted a photo of a very hot black bear looking very satisfied as he was cooling off.

Keep your eyes open everyone – those Orca went South of Mitlenatch, so they’re around somewhere close.

11 am 12 – 24 PWS Dolphins off Fawn Bluff in Bute Inlet (seems to be a favourite spot for them – SM)

11:30 am A larger group of about 50 + PWS Dolphins at Sonora Point, Nodales Channel then heading into Cordero Channel. They were really moving fast.

11:40 am Another group of 8 – 10 PWS Dolphins heading inbound to Phillips Arm.

2:30 pm The large group of PWS Dolphins are just off Hole in the Wall heading towards Dent Rapids.

4 pm 50 – 60 PWS Dolphinsstill above Dent Rapids by Denham Island – looking sleepy. Guess they’re resting with full bellies.

9:45 am About 12 PWS Dolphins foraging by Twin Islands

12 pm Orca spotted off Whiskey Point, by Painter’s Lodge, Campbell River heading South – there’s one big fin.

3 pm The Orca took their time to get to the Red can buoy by Cape Mudge and started angling towards Baker Pass. There was T20 and T090 for sure.

3:45 pm The Orca again changed direction and are headed South towards Mitlenatch Island. They picked up the pace and were abeam Mitlenatch Island at 4 pm. They were still heading South.

6 pm Last sighting (reported) of the Orca heading into Desolation Sound was by Roscoe Bay.

2:40 pm 2 Harbour Porpoise in the middle of Beazely Pass. Just milling.

4 pm 1 Harbour Porpoise foraging in Calm Channel.

Dear Susan, Thank you so much for your amazing blog posts! I’m from the west coast and study Pacific white-sided dolphins in BC, but am writing up my PhD thesis at the University of St Andrews in Scotland at the moment. Your website and updates help me a lot when I’m homesick, except when you post about all these dolphins I’m missing!

The main part of my thesis uses photo-ID data (initially collected by Alexandra Morton, whose catalogue I took over 5 years ago) to estimate abundance, trends and survivorship. That project is described here:

But my thesis will include a chapter on killer whale predation on dolphins (successful & unsuccessful attempts), based on my first time witnessing that amazing event:

I am trying to pull together as many observations of killer whales chasing, attacking, or killing Pacific white-sided dolphins. I would be very grateful for any help you can offer in (a) getting the word out about my search, and (b) putting me in touch with people who have seen this (e.g., this amazing footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-9fdzhn5ic). If people have individual ID photos (e.g., http://www.oceansinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/willson.jpg) I’d be happy to compare them to my catalogue or Alexandra’s historic catalogue from the Broughton Archipelago.

My partner, Rob & I will be home next week for field work in Johnstone Strait and the Broughton and I can’t wait to contribute our sightings to your network. Rob & I work out of Pearse Island.

Thank you so much for your help. If you think it would be appropriate, I can write something that you could include in your next email update, or maybe you can think of a better way to ask your audience for reports of killer whale attacks on dolphins. It would be great to learn more about this amazing species!!! Thank you again! All the best,