Southern Resident Orca and More Orca!

Southern Resident Killer Whales made their annual December trip up around the Powell River area. Other Orca, thought to be Transient, Bigg’s Killer Whales also swung by. (Apologies for the delayed report.)

Remember ALL sightings reports are important!

10:40 a.m. Watching a pod of orcas, heading north. Two of the smaller females were in quite close to Black Point (Albion) the pod is scattered, some mid strait. Saw two males, at least two other females. Think we have spotted a few more, but they are very scattered, can barley locate the blows in the moderate waves, northwest wind 10 knots.

11:10 a.m. more stragglers, in fairly close to Donkersley beach, half a km from shore, could hear the blows. Appeared to be all females; one juvenille and two young ones swimming quite close together with a male in the far distance.

11:15 am At least 4 Orca, didn’t notice any big fins passing by. Really spread out, hard to tell for sure how many. They’re doing long dives, I think as they work their way slowly North in front of us. (Albion Point area – SM) A couple of them are right in close to shore and a seal is popping up watching.

Thanks for the advance notice of orca coming up the Malaspina Strait today.

At 12 noon we saw 3 or four orca, very spread out, slowly making their way north west up past Myrtle Rocks, Powell River. One was quite large and had a very long thin dorsal fin. Then we saw at least eight more, a lot further behind the first ones. These two second groups had about four or five in each group with two small ones. Unfortunately they were too far out from shore for us to get photos.

12:19 pm Large group heading north past Beach Gardens now.

12 pm At least 6 including 1 big male about mid-channel between VanAnda (Texada Island) and Grief Point. There’s one closer to the mainland side. Another group or two showed up closer to Grief Point.

12:20 pm Last group of 8 Orca just rounded Grief Point.

12:15 pm Went down to the Powell River viewpoint, since the skiff is still in the shop, with the hopes of having the whales come closer after the heads up call received. But, they didn’t come close; disappointing. I did see between 12 to 18 Orca heading North-West towards Rebecca Rocks and Harwood. They were in 2 or 3 groups with some tail slapping and at least three full breaches that I saw.

2:19 pm they’re still off Rebecca Rocks heading towards Vancouver Island still really spread out. By 3 pm they had all turned South-West and I lost sight of them behind Texada Island.

Thanks for the heads up on the Orca passing by. I think they must be the same large pod of transients that passed by on Wednesday. (These ones turned out to be Southern Residents – SM) I think there were at least 20 animals in total that I could count. When my friend Dave and I got to Grief Point we could only see 5 or 6 on the far side of the Strait close to Texada Island. That group had a bull with them. Three more were cruising north about mid Strait and then a few minutes later we saw 3 more about 200 meters off shore. I actually heard their blows because I was trying to photograph the other group. I heard some more blows and saw at least 5 animals between Grief point and the Beach Gardens breakwater and about 100 meters off shore. This group seemed to be on the hunt as they were porpoising and changing direction quickly while near the surface. About 15 minutes later I noticed 2 more Orca at mid Strait one of which was a bull too. Lots of fun and it was a first for my friend Dave Glace, he got some nice shots too. I think some of the saddle patch is visible on the image of the bull’s dorsal if you zoom in.

11:15 am 4 Orca 2 in closer to Westview, Powell River and 2 closer to the Blubber Bay light off Texada Island.

From the call above till 12 pm I counted between 10 to 12 Orca with 2 males and one juvenile angling North-West towards Rebecca Rocks and Harwood while 2 females angled towards the Powell River mill.

2 pm The Orca are still between Rebecca Rocks and Harwood.

3:45 pm Pod of Orca just off the Comox ferry terminal heading North. Seen from ferry.

A reminder to all that there are many photos, reports and information available by clicking on the Archived Pages links. I am working on easier access to these older reports, but for now, it’s a few clicks.

Draw date: March 16, 2013

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