A
Very Happy Valentine's Day to all! Another great bit of news for the
Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population. There's another
birth reported in J-Pod, making it the second in 2015! J50, born in December, 2014 is doing well, and this one, born in February, 2015 who's mother is presumed to be
J19, has the number J51. All exciting news!
It's
been wonderful to finally have some Whale and Dolphin activity to
report right out in front of the Whales and Dolphins BC offices.
Unfortunately there are so many things under way in the background,
that it's been almost impossible to get on the water to check it out
or even confirm some IDs. All this behind the scenes activity of
meetings and paperwork has also delayed these reports and we
apologize for that, but please continue to submit your sightings.
Every sightings report is valuable!
We
are holding a fundraising 'Burger and Beer' night at the Savoury
Bight Restaurant and Pub at Grief Point, Powell River on March 10th.
Tickets are $15 for a beef or veggie burger and a beer or wine. We
will have a Toonie toss for some pretty awesome prizes as well as a
couple of door prizes. Tickets are available at the restaurant or
from our members (you can call or email Susan MacKay for info) as
well as a table that is planned in Town Center Mall (date(s) to be
posted shortly). We are also working on obtaining Gaming licences for
our raffles of seven whale watching / eco-tours, accommodation,
Pacific Coastal flight, BC Ferries transportation and a couple of
prints of Garry Henkel's award winning photo as published on the
cover of BC Magazine. These fundraising events are for the first
permanent live web camera and hydrophone system we are putting in
place off the Beach Gardens Marina.
Susan
MacKay & Lynne Cracknell, Whales
and Dolphins BC
Have
you seen a whale, dolphin or porpoise?
Every
sighting report is valuable!
UNIDENTIFIED
KILLER WHALES
(we
are still not 100% sure of who we've had in some of these sightings)
Orca
off Powell River
February
8, 2015 - 3 photos
Steve
Grover, Powell River
February
13:
9:19
am 5 Orca, one of them is huge and there's a young one too northbound
by Albion Point, just by the Wellness Center, Powell River.
Caller
did not leave their name
February
13:
9:20
am 5 Killer Whales moving very slowly Northbound. They sort of stop
and circle, then continue. Sometimes they look like they're resting.
There's 2 big males in the group.
Bill
Taylor, Powell River
February
13:
9:49
am 5 – 6 Killer Whales just off Myrtle Rocks, Powell River,
northbound. They're really close to shore and have gone into the bay,
mostly out of sight for me. There's one really huge male in there.
Jim
Southern, Powell River
February
10:
2:40
pm 3 plus Orca are back and forth between VanAnda and Blubber Bay,
Texada Island. I'm sailing and they're coming closer... there's
actually 7 – 8 Orca including two big males and a small calf. They
appear to be feeding on a possible kill. (I could just make them
out heading NorthWest - SM)
Joe
VanAs, Powell River
Feb
9:
9:00
am: Orca spotted off Myrtle Rocks, Powell River, slowly heading South
East. Bit too foggy to see much more.
Holly
Roy, Powell River.
Feb
9:
11:00
am: At least 2 Killer Whales in Queen Charlotte Strait this morning
around. They were far offshore and I could clearly see one, possibly
two male dorsals through the binoculars. They were too far off to see
if there were any others with them. They were heading east towards
Foster Island – possibly still the T055's from the other day, but
unconfirmed.
Darryl
Luscombe, SointulArt
February
9: (rec'd Feb 11)
3
pm We saw 3 Killer Whales 1 large one, 1 baby, and 1 mid sized on
February 9th in Sabine channel near the southern tip of Texada
Island.
Sarah
Layla, Texada
Feb
8:
1:25
pm: Four plus Orca westbound in Johnstone Strait at Rock Bay,
northwest of Campbell River.
Jos
Krijnen, Eagle Eye Adventures.
Feb
8:
4:57
pm: Orca breaching off Harwood Island Spit. I was scanning looking
for the Dolphins reported below. I saw 5-8 dorsals spread out.
Couldn't tell what direction. Probably feeding. I think that they
were Transient Bigg's Killer Whales, but unconfirmed at this point.
Susan
MacKay, Whales and Dolphins B.C.
Orca
off Powell River Ferry Terminal
February
7, 2015 – 4 photos
Jana
Jones, Powell River
Feb
8:
5
pm on: Just to let you know I watched the Orca by Harwood Spit for
about 20 minutes with my telescope. They were slowly moving
southbound close to the shore off Harwood Island and I counted 7
animals including 2 males. From that distance I couldn't confirm that
they were the same animals from Saturday, but I think they probably
were.
Steve
Grover, Powell River.
Feb
7:
11:20
am: At least 6 Orca northbound towards Powell River, by Grief Point.
Jonathan
Cote, Savoury Bight Restaurant and Pub
Feb
7:
11:28
am: 6 – 8 Orca passing by Grief Point, heading towards Westview in
Powell River.
Joanne
Brough, Powell River.
Feb
7:
11:45
am: There are whales (Orca) out in front of the Beacon B and B, in
Powell River. There is one large dorsal fin and a baby whale.
Shirley
Randall, Powell River.
February
7:
12
pm – ish: I watched them from Marine Ave. for about 45 minutes and
got a few shots that might help in identification. They were on the
hunt for something and gulls were hanging around but didn't see any
definitive. I think there were 7 animals possibly 8 as one image
shows 5 for sure while the 2 large males were further ahead. There
was also a young juvenile doing a bit of a spy hop in one shot. There
was some tail slapping while the big ferry was going close by which
was great to see and lots of people were at the viewpoint getting a
pretty nice look.
Steve
Grover, Powell River
Feb
7:
12:10
pm: On the noon ferry on Saturday there were some Orca spotted off
both sides of the ferry shortly after we left Powell River on the way
to Comox. I couldn't grab my camera fast enough to catch the first
group, but the 2nd
group put on quite the show. It looked like one was quite large (with
a hook at the top of the dorsal fin) and also what looked like a
calf, who breached twice. I've attached some photos that will
hopefully help you identify them. (We
have been so busy at Whales and Dolphins BC that the ID's could not
be confirmed – SM) There
were 3 in the group that I got the photos of, and my husband said he
thinks there were about 3 in the first group as well. I didn't get a
good look at the first group.
Jana
Jones, Powell River
Feb
7:
1:45pm:
Third hand report of up to 20 Orca off the Powell River Mill, with
many young ones. The Powell River Sailing Club had them escort at
least one of the boats for a bit.
Terry
Brown, Powell River
Feb
6:
9:20
am: Seen from Texada – Powell River ferry - at least 3 Orca
southbound down Malaspina Strait just off Blubber Bay.
Micheline
Macauley, Texada Island
Orca
off Texada Island Ferry
February
6, 2015
Micheline
Macauley, Texada Island
NORTHERN
RESIDENT KILLER WHALES
We
believe that some of the sightings in the Unconfirmed Orca reports
might be the A42's who may have actually met up with another whale or
two; possibly to mate since they are a family pod. Sons stay with
their mothers except to mate. This is a bit confusing for many who
believe the big male in the pod to be the 'father'. Some of the
dorsal fins in photos look correct, even though we don't have close
ups, but the numbers are off which creates the confusion.
Susan
MacKay, Whales and Dolphins BC
TRANSIENT
BIGG'S ORCA
Feb
7:
9:55
am: Some shots from the Quadra Queen 11 ferry from yesterday around 2
pm. It was raining hard so a little challenging to get great photos
as the ferry passed these Orca near Haddington Island. Difficult to
estimate how many there were, but there were at least 3 visible at
one time, likely more though. Approximate location was Lat.50.607079
Long 127.02906 and they were traveling west down Broughton Strait.
(T055's)
Darryl
Luscombe, SointulArt
Transient
Bigg's Killer Whales T055's
February
7, 2015 – 3 photos
Darryl
Luscombe, SointulArt
PACIFIC
WHITE SIDED DOLPHINS
February
12:
We
saw a few smaller groups of Pacific White Sided Dolphins really close
into shore, maybe looking for herring. There were 15 – 20 Dolphins
in each group and they were mostly Northbound.
Bill
Taylor, Powell River
Feb
9:
12:42
pm: Radio report of Pacific White Sided Dolphins off Coho Point at
the north west tip of Texada Island. Too foggy for me to see.
2:38
pm: I've spotted about 10 – 12 Pacific White Sided Dolphins off the
Powell River viewpoint, foraging, and another group of around 20 also
foraging in front of Powell River. No count on the ones still off
Coho Point on Texada Island.
Susan
MacKay, Whales and Dolphins B.C.
Feb
9:
2:15
pm: Just caught tail end of a school of Pacific White Sided Dolphins
down in the Grief Point area. There are probably around 30 or 40.
They are still around, but heading south. Would be very visible from
the Beach Gardens in Powell River soon.
Janet
Southcott, Powell River.
Feb
8:
4:30
pm: 30-40 Pacific White Sided Dolphins southbound off Vananda, on
Texada Island.
Micheline
Macauley, Texada Island
HUMPBACK
WHALES
We
have been receiving, non specific (date, time, numbers, etc.) reports
of many Humpback Whales in and around both Mexico and Hawaii. We have
some photos below submitted by Michael Stewart of Powell River on
Feb. 12th from Banderas Bay, Mexico. - SM
Humpback
Whales
Banderas
Bay, Mexico – 3 photos
Michael
Stewart, Powell River
HARBOUR
PORPOISE
Feb
8: I wanted to touch base with you regarding two incidents of Pacific
White Sided Dolphins being found dead at Davis Bay on the Sunshine
Coast. The first sighting was on January 28th
(I was out of the country and just heard of it and have no pics) and
the most recent was yesterday. I doubt it could be the same animal
with the time in between and with not much decomposition. Once
looking at it, it became obvious this one was a Harbour Porpoise from
the dorsal and lack of other Dolphin markings. (It
is possible that both sightings were Porpoise, but without photos
from the first one, it's hard to be certain - SM)
Geordie
Harrower, Roberts Creek.
LINKS
The
new Southern Resident Killer Whale of J-Pod still has the very
distinctive tiny 'baby' look; orange colour to white patches and a
few fetal folds that he/she will grow into. Here are a couple of the
Birth Announcements:
The
widening of a Highway in Chile has lead to the discovery of the
fossilized remains of large numbers of whales, the result of mass
strandings thousands of years ago:
A
“nail in the coffin” for the keeping of Killer Whales in
captivity. Ontario aims towards the eventual end to all captive
cetaceans, plus an overhaul of the rules for all marine mammals
presently in captivity.
Some
fascinating underwater video of Killer Whales playing off the coast
of Western Australia:
And
some Super Smart Sperm whales take back what belongs to them, leaving
commercial fishermen crying foul!
Have
you seen a whale, dolphin or porpoise?
Every
sighting report is valuable!
We
are the non-profit Wild Ocean Whale Society
