Humpback Whales Still Around, Orca and Dolphins Too
February 3, 2017
— issue No. 2017-003
Pacific White Sided Dolphins are the majority of this report as they travel in larger groups leaping and splashing. Other Whales have been slipping by as they do long dives and people miss seeing them or only get a brief glimpse. They are still around throughout our waters though, and sometimes it’s just luck in spotting them. Even just after our publication cut-off time, there were some Orca southbound in front of Powell River. I spotted them surfacing only a few times, then they seemed to vanish.
We’d like to remind you that every report is valuable. You may see one or two whales and someone may see more. You may not even be sure of which species of whale you’re seeing, but the report is still useful, and frequently we can help you figure out the species. This information helps us in establishing their patterns and patterns of their food sources they are following. So keep your eyes open, and please report your sighting.
Susan MacKay, Wild Ocean Whale Society
Pacific White Sided Dolphins swimming by Powell River at sunset
Michelle Pennell, Powell River, BC
Society News & Events
Nominations:
Wild Ocean Whale Society has been nominated again this year in the Not-For-Profit category of the 2017 Annual Business Awards for going above and beyond in all aspects of business. Thank you all for the nomination. Winners will be announced at a gala event held by the Powell River Chamber of Commerce on February 4, 2017
Real Time Monitoring Station Update:
We hope to get a few photos of the progress in our next issue.
Our team of Volunteers continue to do a great job in making sure all your reports are mapped and published regularly. Would you like to join us?
Review our current Volunteer Job Postings
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ISSUE SIGHTINGS MAP 2017-003
UNIDENTIFIED KILLER WHALES
Wed Feb 01 2017
12:47 • 4 Orca heading north toward Rebecca Rocks from the north end of Texada Island, Malaspina Strait. ▫ From Power or Sail Boat
Robin Evans, Heriot Bay, BC
Mon Jan 30 2017
14:00 • 5-6 Orca moving slowly, heading east off Sandy Cove in West Vancouver, Burrard Inlet. I am not a whale expert. A couple of the dorsal fins were very large suggesting males and there were a couple of young ones in the group. They were gently rising out of the water then submerging. Of the three freighter moorage spots off West Vancouver, they were between the middle and far east one. ▫ Observed from Shore
S. McDermott, West Vancouver, BC
11:24 • 1 Orca heading south between Parksville and Ballenas Islands, Georgia Strait.
Maureen Barratt, visiting from Alberta
Sat Jan 28 2017
15:00 • 5-10 Orca moving quickly, heading south-west between Whytecliff Park and Passage Island, Queen Charlotte Channel. Was sitting on a bench at Whytecliff park in West Vancouver,looking out at Passage Island when all of a sudden a big male dorsal fin appears. There were two males and five-seven females. One of the big males was by itsself and came up for air really close to the Whytecliff Park Islet. Some of them swam around Bird Islet and they were all heading towards Passage Island. Lost sight of them as they went around Passage Island. Not sure if they were Transients or the Southern Residents. ▫ Observed from Shore
Jarod Adams, West Vancouver, BC
Wed Jan 25 2017
15:52 • 2 Orca heading south close to Shingle Beach on Texada Island, Sabine Channel. Possibly more than 2 in the group.
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Unidentified Killer Whales
Killer Whale heading South off of Texada Island
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 – 1 items
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Unidentified Killer Whales
Killer Whale heading South off of Texada Island
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 – 1 items
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
Mon Jan 23 2017
13:08 • 8-10 Orca heading south close to Northeast Point, Texada Island, Malaspina Strait.
John and Joan Treen, Powell River and Savary Island, BC
Wed Jan 25 2017
13:27 • 3 Humpback Whales heading north-west between Texada Island and Lasqueti Island, Georgia Strait. At least 3 were seen.
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Humpback Whales
Three Humpback Whales passing very close to Texada Island
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 – 2 items
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Humpback Whales
Three Humpback Whales passing very close to Texada Island
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 – 2 items
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
Sat Jan 21 2017
08:36 • Humpback Whales heading south off Northeast Point, Texada Island, Malaspina Strait.
Eric Green, Powell River CCG
Fri Jan 20 2017
11:40 • 1 Humpback Whales foraging, off Story Point near Bella Bella, Seaforth Channel. I viewed this whale feeding near Story Point from my boat over a 2 hr period and then again before sunset from the western shore of Lama Pass. It was feeding close to shore and further out. There were thousands of water birds in the area indicating a large school of herring. ▫ From Power or Sail Boat
Vic Gladish, Bella Bella, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Humpback Whales
A single Humpback Whale off of Story Point near Bella Bella
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 – 1 items
Vic Gladish, Bella Bella, BC
SIGHTING MEDIA
Humpback Whales
A single Humpback Whale off of Story Point near Bella Bella
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 – 1 items
Vic Gladish, Bella Bella, BC
PACIFIC WHITE SIDED DOLPHINS
Mon Jan 23 2017
16:56 • PWS Dolphins heading north off Westview, Powell River, Malaspina Strait. Very large group.
Pam Futer, Powell River, BC
16:55 • PWS Dolphins at Grief Point, Powell River, Malaspina Strait. Large group.
John and Joan Treen, Powell River and Savary Island, BC
16:00 • est. 150 PWS Dolphins heading north just north of Myrtle Rocks, Powell River, Malaspina Strait.
Jim Southern, Powell River, BC
13:08 • PWS Dolphins south of Northeast Point, Texada Island, Malaspina Strait. Large group.
John and Joan Treen, Powell River and Savary Island, BC
Sat Jan 21 2017
17:01 • est. 200 PWS Dolphins foraging, heading north-west between Powell River and Harwood Island, Malaspina Strait. ▫ Observed from Shore
16:44 • est. 200 PWS Dolphins heading east toward Powell River from Rebecca Rocks, Malaspina Strait. ▫ Observed from Shore
Barry Rice, Powell River, BC
Fri Jan 20 2017
12:43 • PWS Dolphins near Van Anda on Texada Island, Malaspina Strait. Large group seen from Grief Point Park. ▫ Observed from Shore
Michelle Pennell, Powell River, BC
11:59 • est. 200 PWS Dolphins foraging, between Grief Point and Beach Gardens Marina, Malaspina Strait.
Shirley Cole, Powell River, BC
09:52 • est. 100 PWS Dolphins right off the wharf at Van Anda on Texada Island, Malaspina Strait.
Candi Little, Texada Island, BC
SPECIES SUPPLEMENT
Pacific White Sided Dolphins
Pacific White Sided Dolphins swimming by Beach Garden Resort in Powell River
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 – 4 items
Michelle Pennell, Powell River, BC
SPECIES SUPPLEMENT
Pacific White Sided Dolphins
Pacific White Sided Dolphins swimming by Beach Garden Resort in Powell River
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 – 4 items
Michelle Pennell, Powell River, BC
NEW! WOWs Sightings Archive Explorer
Recommended for desktop browsers and newer mobile devices
Dive into over 5,000 Cetacean Sightings, images, videos and audio recordings reported in our Sightings Updates with the WOWS Sightings Archive Explorer
Archive Explorer takes readers into the Cetacean world of the BC Coast. Easily view all Cetacean sighting reports together with all sighting photos and videos:
• View species such as Humpback, Grey Whale or Dalls Porpoise
• Follow the endangered Southern Residents Orca in the Salish Sea
• Search for encounters with T002C2 Tumbo
• Goto Port Alberni to watch a close-up video of Orca in the harbour
• Track the T010s Transients as they hunt and travel the inside passage
• Check-Out “KC”, the ever popular Humphack and track his whereabouts this past August
• Goto one of 12,000 named locations on the BC and WA State coast
• Print custom sighting reports and maps (Coming Soon)
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West Seattle Blog
That’s a brand-new sign – in San Simeon, California – along The Whale Trail, the shore-based network of whale-watching spots established by the West Seattle-based advocacy group of the same name. The photo is from TWT executive director Donna Sandstrom, who is in California to launch six new TWT sites, including that one. And this comes as her group celebrates a new grant announced this week by a national org….
Globe & Mail
Hakai Magazine
After hundreds of hours of observations, we now know it’s true: breaching humpback whales are yelling.
Just off the easternmost tip of Australia, a 36-tonne humpback whale launches itself out of the water, twists midair, and crashes back into the sea. Breaching is among nature’s grandest spectacles-and one of nature’s grandest gestures. New research conducted by University of Queensland marine biologist Ailbhe S. Kavanagh confirms what many cetacean biologists have long suspected: breaching is a whale’s way of saying hello.
Because the ocean can be such a murky place, many marine animals have turned to sound to communicate. Sound travels far more efficiently in water than light does. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are among the best-known ocean vocalists. While the haunting songs of males have been well studied, the "social sounds," produced by humpback males, females, and calves alike, are less understood. These include so …
Live Science
Porpoises are members of the scientific order Cetacea and are related to dolphins, but the two animals are different species. They both have sleek bodies and large flippers. Both are considered brainy creatures and they both have a melon, a structure in the forehead that they use to produce sound waves for navigating their watery homes.
However, porpoises and dolphins differ in several ways. For example, porpoises don’t have elongated beaks like dolphins. Also, porpoises have triangular dorsal fins, while dolphins have curved or hook-shaped fins. The exception are finless porpoises. They don’t have fins at all. Do…
Washington Post, DC
While we may think of the underwater world as relatively tranquil, it is dominated by sound. Most famous of all those sounds are the melodic "songs" of humpback whales, which, after being popularized on an eponymous record album in 1970, proved a catalyst for the early "Save the Whales" movement. The late astronomer Carl Sagan considered humpbacks’ songs so beautiful that he included them on the "Sounds of Earth" recordings that, even now, are heading far into space onboard the Voyager spacecrafts. And while no other whale song has traveled so far, the vocalizations of other whale species can travel great distances: the low, powerful rumblings of a blue whale, for example, have been picked up on hydrophones 700 miles away.
The first time I heard a blue whale vocalization was when scientist Roger Payne played a recording at a conference in Monterey, Calif., in the late 1980s. Normally, these rumblings are at a frequency that is too deep for the human ear or, at best, at the very fringes of a person’s hearing, but Payne had sped up his recording so that it was easily audible. Even in a form broadly equivalent to Plácido Domingo impersonating Mickey Mouse …
Sailing World
Collisions with objects at sea are becoming more and more common for ocean going sailors, but data on incidents involving marine mammals is often spare….
In May 2012, CAMPER helmsman Roberto “Chuny’ Bermudez found himself nearly face to face with a whale in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. In a pretty extraordinary video from a rainy day on the Miami to Lisbon leg of the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race, you see Bermudez swing the boat, which had been hurtling through the ocean at over 20 knots, into the wind and just narrowly avoid what would have been a catastrophic collision with a marine mammal.
"It would have been a bad day for both the whale and for us," said Media Crew Member Hamish Hooper afterwards. "With reflexes like a cat [Bermudez] narrowly missed what would have been the equivalent of a runaway freight train colliding with a truck."
The Guardian, UK
"There are only a few thousand southern right whales left on the planet," said the project’s leader, geneticist Jennifer Jackson, of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge. "We need to find out what is killing them and we think their sub-Antarctic feeding ground holds the answer."
Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) can grow to 18 metres and weigh up to 80 tonnes. They get their name for being the right whale for hunters to pursue, added Jackson. "They swim slowly, float when dead, and yield a great deal of oil," she said. "They were perfect targets for whalers."
YouTube
Mother Whale and Calf with people on whale watching trip. Very cool to see the Momma raising her Baby to show it the funny looking humans! Like a revers Zoo, were the people out to see the Whales, or was the Momma Whale teaching her baby about humans? The big momma Whale held her baby on her back to raise it high enough for the humans to pet it, and for it to get a good look at the humans.
BBC Northern Ireland
Scientists plan to eavesdrop on whales and dolphins as part of a new plan to protect sea mammals and marine environments.
Almost £6m has been set aside for the project which will be centred on the Irish and Scottish coasts.
It is being led by scientists from Northern Ireland’s Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).
They are developing a network of marine monitoring devices.
The scientists will be able to record whale and dolphin chatter, allowing them to identify numbers and species in the water.
The technology will also enable them to assess whether noise from commercial fishing, or other marine industry affects them.
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