Northern Residents A8’s / A42’s still by Powell River

With the Northern Resident (fish eating) Killer Whales known as A8’s (also as A42’s now) back and forth by Powell River, the reports once again started to flow in. Thank you! Keep your eyes open, and remember to call your sighting in please. Without your reports, we cannot be guaranteed to piece the puzzle of species, numbers and their movements together.

The Southern Resident (fish eating) satellite tagged Orca stayed on the West side of Texada Island for a while and finally headed back down into Puget Sound.

Transient Bigg’s (meat eating) Killer Whales have done their disappearing act, though fewer boats on the water means fewer eyes and reports too.

A few Humpback Whales have been reported over-wintering on the North Coast somewhere around Prince Rupert.

Pacific White Sided Dolphins reported still down between West Vancouver to Nanaimo.

No Porpoise reports this time again.

Note: A42’s calf’s number A103 has yet to be ‘officially’ confirmed to Whales and Dolphins BC by Dept. Of Fisheries as the number. We have held out using this number waiting to receive confirmation after numerous requests. It is the number that is openly being used by other researchers. Although we have not received a confirming response, we must now assume that it is A42’s calf’s official number, and we will use it. We also have been requesting that the calf be named either "Albion" or "Myrtle" based on the location of birth by Powell River December 2012 and/or sex. Again, there has been no response to these requests and since the sex is still undetermined (lack of photo to confirm sex), we would like to start using the name "Albion". What do you all think?

January 16:

4:07 pm A8’s / A42’s are Southbound by Grief Point, Powell River.

January 15:

10:54 am 6 Orca just passed my house Northbound towards Powell River proper. It’s the same group as yesterday. They aren’t stopping just moving steadily.

January 15:

11:30 am Same pod of 4 Orca seen in same place as yesterday. One very large, two medium and one baby seen between Myrtle Rocks and Van Anda, heading towards Grief Point, just behind the Texada ferry. Some rolling and a tail slap.

January 15:

11:30 am. 5 Orcas in front of Myrtle Rock. They have been here for an hour feeding. Now moving towards Westview.

January 15:

12:19 pm The Orca A8/A42’s are just North of Grief Point now.

January 15:

12:30 pm (or so) Picked up the A8/A42’s with a bit of help from Geord as the water taxi came into the harbour. They had made it to just out in front of Powell River’s South Harbour. They would group up and they separate, but continued towards Willingdon Beach and the mill doing relatively long dives. I dropped the hydrophone a number of times again, but other than a brief bit of echolocation, they were not chatty. The noise from the ferry terminal construction and mill made it hard to listen for too long.

1:40 pm Left the Orca grouped up and angling towards Harwood Island spit. They sometimes like to rub on the sandy beach there.

January 14: (1 pm Call came in)

From 9 am till around 12:30 pm, 5 Orca back and forth by the Powell River mill and Harwood Island. They appeared to be feeding / foraging while we were fishing. There was one really small one with another larger calf and one big male.

January 14:

1 pm While speaking with Clyde on the phone I spotted A66 (Surf’s) big dorsal fin heading back towards the mill, so grabbed gear and headed out.

By 1:30 pm Found the A8/A42’s still close to the Powell River mill and slowly heading South. I was aiming for a couple of photos without disturbing them while heading back towards the harbour. Just past the entrance to the harbour at 2:44 pm I received a call from Caroline that there was at least one Orca behind the boat and closer to the ferry dock. With flat calm waters, the blows would echo off the shore and sometimes sound like there was another whale. The ferry dock construction noise also added to the sounds. The call was appreciated. Once stopped, the whale, A79 was finally spotted and passed quite a distance off. Could see Mom, A42 and her calf, A103 with A66 heading at a steady pace towards Grief Point with A79 and A88 following. A28 has been very difficult to spot, but with a not as clear photo quality as I would have liked, I have conclusively identified her as being with the family pod. Additionally, with confirmation of 6 Orca in the pod, the numbers are correct for A28 to be there. She has just been very shy.

January 14:

2:32 pm Just spotted some Orca out in front of the Powell River ferry dock.

January 14:

3:32 pm Some Orca just rounded Grief Point Southbound. Saw 3 or 4 of them.

January 14:

4 pm Three possibly four Orca seen between Myrtle Rocks and Van Anda on Texada Island. One very large, one or two medium and one baby. They seemed to be feeding as they were milling around in circles for about fifteen minutes, coming quite far out of the water. Suddenly they just vanished, although I kept watching, I could not see which direction they took. Maybe scared off by the passing tug boat.

Holly Roy, Pebble Beach, Powell River

January 14:

5:10 pm. Orca heading east between Myrtle Pt & Black (Albion) Pt. At least four, …one large dorsal…too dark for much identification or even numbering. Could hear them better than seeing them. They were in fairly close.
Perk of Perseas Dive, Powell River

January 14:

5:12 pm I spotted 3 Orca heading south just now…I live at the bottom of Whalen Road…1 big one & 2 smaller ones.

January 14:

NOAA satellite tagged Southern Resident Orca had stayed around the West side of Texada Island to Sentry Shoal since January 7^th and have now headed out by Puget Sound. Here’s the link to the maps and updates: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/cb/ecosystem/marinemammal/satellite_tagging/blog2014.cfm

January 14:

Was supposed to get on the water tomorrow January 15th) to check out some overwintering Humpbacks, but it’s blowing 40 knots, so I think we are postponing until next week. Looking forward to exploring the area.

On Monday, January 13, the 3 o’clock ferry going from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay encountered a large pod of dolphins heading north across the ferry’s path. They seemed to be in a long line, and most were still to the south of the ferry, with just a few having crossed the path where the ferry was about to go.
Regrettably, I didn’t note the time or have GPS access, but perhaps the ferry’s log would show that info. I think the ship was the Queen of Coquitlam, and that it was the second officer who announced the sighting to the passengers. This occurred more or less in the middle of the Strait, but perhaps the log will have the coordinates.
Just one thing worried me: I know that dolphins are very smart – but, since they were crossing the ferry’s path, could any of them have been injured? I saw one leap out of the water very close to the bow of the ship, at a 90 degree angle to the ship’s direction of travel, heading toward the ship. I wasn’t able to see what happened after that, but I hope that the bow wave carried the dolphin back alongside the ship.
Suzanne Gregory

I hope this is both helpful and informative to boaters. I do not travel into the group of Dolphins, they come to me. This is a very important point since most injuries happen when people ‘think’ they are fast enough to get out of the way. They are not, and sometimes get so caught up in play, they get careless….relate it to a child playing hard.