Whale Watching

We’re not all about the bears, whales are abundant here too!

Killer whales and humpback whales are often seen during our wildlife tours. There are resident whales and transient whales that can be seen feeding and playing in our waters.

Perspective on Whale Watching

orca with guests

When I am in the boat with guest I try to get photos that show that there are opportunities for good pictures. Although the Whale Watching Guideline specify that boats stay 100 meters (yards) from the orca / killer whales at sometime during your trip that may not be true. In the area we do our marine wildlife viewing there is less than eight boats whale watching and over the period of the day every one has an opportunity for photos. Once taken we move off to view the humpback whales, stellar sea lions, harbour seal, dolphins, porpoise, bald eagles and a variety of sea birds.  Must not leave out the black bears we often see as we travel between the viewing area and the Lodge.

 

 

Humpback Whale Lobtailing

lobtailing humpback

Lobtailing is when a whale lifts its fluke (tail fin) out of the water and brings it down forcefully to slap the surface of the water with a big splash and loud report. Humpback whales will frequently lobtail repeatedly for several minutes at a time. They can lobtail both dorsally and ventrally (right side up as this photo shows or upside down), sometimes stopping just long enough to take a breath before rolling over to continue on the other side. As more and more whales are spending their summers in our viewing area, often as many as twelve to sixteen different whales a trip, the lobtailing is becoming more common. This tends to support the belief that lobtailing is most likely a form of non-verbal communication, like breaching or pectoral fin slapping, and can be used to call attention to an individual, to impress a potential mate or intimidate a foe.

 

 

Visiting Killer Whales

Killer Whales approaching

The resident salmon eating orca that we see on our whale watching / wildlife viewing trips are curious like all dolphins. If you are sitting quietly in your boat with the engine turned off they will approach and pass beneath the boat. The regulations or guidelines prohibit leap frogging, which is running ahead of the orca and moving to stop directly in front of a moving pod of killer whales. When your are whale watching form the lodge you are not limited to a 3.5 hour tour, rather a full day tour, the opportunity to be in a position to have the curious orca visit your boat increases dramatically.

 

 

Curious Sea Lions – Close

Steller sea lion

The Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) are also known as the northern sea lion and Steller’s sea lion. Males are distinguished from females by broader, higher foreheads, flatter snouts, and darker, slightly tuftier hair around their large necks, giving them a maned appearance. Their Latin name translates roughly as “maned one with the broad forehead”. Steller sea lions are known for their curiosity and playfulness, they frequently visit our boats as we watch them on the rock out croppings along the shore.

 

 

Humpback Whale Tail Fluke

Humpback Whale tail

Everything a humpback whale is about size. Length: up to 17 m (55 ft); Weight: up to 40,000 kg (88,000 lbs); A Large pectoral flipper, up to 1/3 length of body; and a tail fluke up to 5 m (15 ft) feet across.  It would be possible to lay two dolphins nose to nose across the tail fluke of an adult humpback whale. Over the past five years humpback whales sightings have increased from four or five a day to twelve to fifteen. Tail lobbing, lunge feeding and tail fluking are common. It does not matter how often you see that tail come out of the water it is amazing.

 

 

Dolphin Taking a Dive

whitside dolphin tail

Pacific white sided dolphins, as mentioned in the positing of April 17th, are frequently seen in our viewing area. They are observed as often on the grizzly bear tour and the day with Trapper Rick as they are while whale watching. This is an unusual photo as it is the after the leap and was kept to compare it to tomorrow’s post.

 

 

Herring balls and humpback whales

Humpback Lunge

The seagulls in this photo are the key to good whale watching. Humpback whales in our area feed on herring. Diving ducks attack the herring from below and their defence is to form a tight mass of revolving herring (a herring ball) which moves to the surface. When the herring near the surface the gulls attack from above and that is what your guide wants to see. Once the gulls are spotted it is necessary to move toward the herring ball without making the ball disperse and then wait for a humpback whale to lunge up and eat the herring. On this attempt the humpback was faster than the guide to reach the herring so our view was from the distance but if you check the post’s from April 6th and 7th you can see that is not the norm.

 

 

Pacific White Sided Dolphins

Whitsides - Dolphins

Pacific white sided dolphins have the Latin name of “Lagenorhynchus obliquidens”, which is shortened to “Lags” because the Latin is too much of a mouthful to use over a VHF radio. These dolphins may travel in-groups that reach numbers of up to 2,000 or 3,000 but most often in-groups between 20 to 100. If you only see a couple keep a look out as there are usually more not too far off. These dolphins are playful and will often follow in the propwash of the boat or ride the bow wave. The best approach for a photo is to point and click as much as possible and upon returning to the Lodge delete all the pictures of the sky and water and maybe have some of the dolphins.

 

 

Watching a Killer Whale Family

Pod of orca

“Pods are actually their own matriarchal family groups. Animals born into a pod, stay in the pod their entire lives. This is like living with your mother, aunts, uncles, cousins and brothers and sisters all descendant from your mother’s side of the family for your whole life. It is extremely rare for an Orca from one pod to be accepted or join with another pod of whales. The gene pool gets mixed up by not having any father within the same pod. Each pod has their own ‘dialect’ of communication through various squeaks, burbles, and whistles.
The term “Whale” is a misnomer since the Orca is actually from the dolphin family. We associate “whale” with something very large and they are much larger than the majority of dolphins. They are a whale of a dolphin.”

This quote was taken from the website Whales and Dolphins BC which is a great site to visit if you are interested in more information.

 

 

River Scavengers

Bald eagle

The bald eagle is a majestic bird and it is exciting to watch them dive and pick food out of the water.  But like all wildlife a free meal is a free meal and an eagle makes no excuses for being a scavenger. If an eagle can grab a leftover salmon carcass and get a free meal they are the first in line before the seagulls, crows and ravens. This bald eagle was overhead eating a salmon while we moved up the river in search of more grizzly bears.