After over a month of no whale, dolphin
or porpoise sightings out in front of Powell River, we finally had
some Orca – see report below. Other reports from the past few
days have indicated there were Northern Resident Orca at the top of
Johnstone Strait as well as Southern Residents in Puget Sound.
Susan MacKay, Whales
and Dolphins BC
January 11:
12:30 pm just after discussing the lack
of sightings with a regular contributor to Whales and Dolphins BC
Sightings Blog in a store, I received a call from Bill Taylor
that there were around 7 Orca just south of Powell River
headed in my direction.
1:15 pm By the time I got down to the
skiff, I spotted blows by VanAnda, Texada Island. There were a
couple of breaches as the Orca slowly made their way towards
Powell River. They were quite spread out with some closer to
Grief Point and others hugging the Texada shore when a couple of them
popped up in the middle of the strait. The two big males in the lead
disappeared pretty quickly, but there was at least one other male and
two juveniles. With the spread, it was very difficult to get a
definitive count, but there were between 11 to 14 whales
total. I dropped the hydrophone and through the boat noise, I did
hear a few calls as well as some echolocation. They sounded more
like Resident Orca, than Transients, but with all the boat noise, it was not enough to be sure of
who. Once the video clip (my still camera is in the shop) is
reviewed, I'll be able to pull a photo for the blog and get a proper
identification. The majority of the Orca headed out between Texada
and Rebecca Rocks towards Vancouver Island while the last two went
out closer to Harwood around 3 pm. Once home, I spotted a few of
their blows heading North-West towards Sentry Shoal.
Susan MacKay, Whales
and Dolphins BC
January 10:
Around 12 pm A call came in that there
was just one blow spotted behind one of the shrimp draggers working
out in front of Powell River. There were no dorsals or additional
blows seen.
Steve Grover
