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.

Pacific White-sided dolphin Airborne

airborne dolphins
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The pacific white-sided dolphins are seen quite often on both the grizzly bear tours and the whale watching safari. These dolphins are present in First Nation’s middens dating back 2,000 years, but they were rare in B.C. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting in the 1980’s, Pacific white-sided dolphins started to become more abundant in inshore waters and inlets along the B.C. coast. It’s possible that their long absence was related to a change in ocean temperatures and a shift in their prey distribution. Dolphins travel in groups throughout their lives. We usually encountered groups of 50 to several 100 animals, although some groups have been seen with 1,000 or more individuals in our viewing area. As the photo demonstrates these dolphins are energetic and quite active and are frequently seen leaping, belly flopping, and somersaulting. They are strong, fast swimmers and enthusiastic bow riders, often staying with moving vessels for extended periods.

Bald Eagle landing

eagle landing
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Perfect photo of a bald eagle landing or taking off either way it is still a great picture. We cannot guarantee “this” photo but there are many eagles in our viewing area. From the eagles in the tree near the lodge’s dock to any number of trees while on a day watching grizzly bears or on a whale watching excursion. Bald eagles are often seen picking small fish or herring from the water, feeding along the shore on recent catches or in the river picking on the salmon left by the grizzly bears.

Black Bears in the evening

black bear follows cub
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The float plane flight from Campbell River on Vancouver Island means that arrival at Grizzly Bear Lodge is between 3:00 and 4:00. Once guests are settled in their rooms a welcoming snack of fresh dungeness crabs or prawn is served on the front deck. The first evening is a familiarization tour where you get to know your guide and feel comfortable is the boats and start to check off the list of wildlife you hope to see. If the tide is right and low enough to have a beach black bears may come to forage. As both the grizzly bear tours and the whale watching safari days are by boat the guides are always looking for black bears. Black bears appear on the beaches to turnover rocks. This inter-tidal zone “food” is high in protein and is made up of crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates.

 

Humpback Pectoral Fin

pectoral fin
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Humpback whales are common in the waters between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland. A normal viewing day from the lodge will encounter more than a dozen whales which often put on dramatic displays of breaching, lobtailing and fluking. In the case of this photo slapping a pectoral fin like a tail.  Comparing it to yesterday’s post one can see way from a distance it could be mistaken for an orca. An interesting fact is that the humpback whale’s large pectoral fins have been the inspiration for the development of new aerodynamic technology to help fast-moving helicopters, maintain lift and increase maneuverability. The bumps on the pectoral fins of humpbacks have been used as inspiration before, in the development of turbine blades used in wind turbines, hydroelectric turbines and ventilation fans that increase efficiency.

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/318932#ixzz2kqka5vV3

Killer Whale Dorsal Fin

killer whale dorsal fin
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Orca, killer whales or blackfish are all the same and the residents return by late June most years. Our whale watching safaris are in the area of Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland. This photo of a male orca shows a mature dorsal fin.  Following are some interesting fact about dorsal fins taken from www.seaworld.org/infobooks/killerwhale.
1.  Like the flukes, the dorsal fin is made of dense, fibrous connective tissue, with no bones.
2.  The dorsal fin acts as a keel.  The dorsal fin probably helps stabilize a killer whale as it swims at high speeds but is not essential to a whale’s stability.
3.  The dorsal fins of male killer whales are the tallest of any cetacean in the world, growing up to 1.8 m (6 ft.).  Female dorsal fins are smaller at about 0.9 to 1.2 m (3-4 ft.) and may be slightly curved back.
4.  For male killer whales, dorsal fin growth is thought to be a secondary sexual characteristic as peak growth of the fin coincides approximately with the onset of sexual maturity.
5.  Because of the huge diversity of killer whale dorsal fins and the adjacent saddle patch, researchers take pictures of these fins to identify individuals and their pods, much like fingerprints are taken to identify humans.

Andreas & Steffi Tacke, Germany – 4

tel slapping whale
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This photo taken an hour earlier than yesterday’s post shows a humpback whale fluking or lobtailing. Lobtailing is the act of a whale lifting its fluke out of the water and then bringing it down onto the surface of the water hard and fast in order to make a loud slap. Large whales tend to lobtail by positioning themselves vertically downwards into the water and then slapping the surface by bending the tail stock.  They are likely to slap several times in a single session. The sound of a lobtail can be heard underwater several hundred metres from the site of a slap. This has led to speculation amongst scientists that lobtailing is, like breaching, a form of non-vocal communication. Also some suggest that lobtailing in humpback whales is a means of foraging. The hypothesis is that the loud noise causes herring to become frightened, thus tightening their school together, making it easier for the humpback to feed on them.

Andreas & Steffi Tacke, Germany – 3

tail lobbing whale
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Whale watching safaris from the lodge this summer saw allot of activity from the humpback whales. Most days there were more than a dozen whales in the area of Bold Head on Blackfish Sound which is adjacent to Johnstone Strait and Vancouver Island on BC’s coast. There were two families of mother and calf in the area and the calves were very active. In this photo the calf was quite close and spent time throwing it’s back half of its body sideways out of the water. It would come up with it’s upper body part way out of the water and then throw it’s back half up and to the side.  This was a repeat performance going on for the better part of five minutes with a rest and then trying again.  From my searching scientists aren’t sure if this breaching behaviour serves some purpose, such as cleaning pests from the whale’s skin, or whether whales simply do it for fun.

Andreas & Steffi Tacke, Germany – 1

foggy whale watching
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Fog is always a challenge for a guide.  The first being able to locate the whales which is the easiest to overcome because the humpback whales are normally in the area of Bold Head (the northern end of Swanson Island not far from Vancouver Island) about a fifty minute boat ride from our lodge. GPS have made that part much easier. The harder part once the whales are located in the fog is to find them.  They can be easily heard but when there are many whales blowing or breathing it is hard to choose the correct direction and once the whale is in site even hared to be behind for a good photo. In this case it all work out but my motto has always been: “Luck is better than skill any day.”

Alica Goldston Taylor

perefect humpback lunge
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An incredible photo of a Humpback whale lunge feeding up through a ball of herring. As the photo shows these whales have throat groves that run from chin to navel. The grooves allow the throat to expand and take in large volumes of water and food into the mouth. As the mouth closes the whale presses down with its tongue forcing all water out through baleen plates. The photo shows that the baleen plates hang in row from each side of the upper jaw. Baleen is made of a similar protein to the human fingernail; they are very strong and flexible.

Britt Maria Christiansen, Brussels – 3

killer whales
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Excellent picture of two orca (killer whales) on a day whale watching in Johnstone Strait adjacent to Vancouver Island. Any photo showing the white eye patch or the white under belly of an orca is great but to have one photo showing both on two different killer whales is excellent. This female and juvenile orca are members of the resident or fish eating orca that spend their summers in the area near Telegraph Cove.  This whale watching area is fifty minute boat ride from the lodge and contains a variety of marine life from orca, humpback whales, harbour seals, Steller sealions, dolphins, porpoise as well as bald eagles and a variety of ducks and gulls.