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.

Google Map of Spawning Channel

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Click to enlarge then click again

Once you have read the description below the map can be enlarged by clicking once on the photo and then once again and the photo should take the full screen.

The above photo is a selection taken from Google Earth that shows the Glendale River estuary in the upper left corner of the map. The river estuary is about 42 kilometers (26 miles) an hour and fifteen-minute boat ride from Grizzly Bear Lodge. Upon arriving at the river mouth the boat is tied to a float which is indicated by the yellow dots in the extreme upper left corner. Once at the float a flat bottom skiff is used to get to shore and the truck, which is used to drive to the spawning channel. The road runs along the estuary and the river past the base of the hills in the lower left section of the map and then curves to the green dot, which is a bridge over the Glendale River.

The zig zag line of trees are along the edge of the man made spawning channel.  The road pass beside the top (right) edge of the last finger of the spawning area and then across and past the curves of the rest of the channels to the first red dot which is the first viewing stand.  The second red dot is the stand normally used by Grizzly Bear Lodge. The area between the two red dots is a finger of land with the natural river on the right side and around the end of the finger to the holding pool on the left (top) side.  The salmon holding pool is a result of an aluminum weir or small dam at the entrance to the spawning channel. This may be raised or lowered depending on how many salmon have entered the channel. The second stand is the preferred viewing area as there is an unobstructed view of the river and the holding pool and photos due not need to show the aluminum weir in the background.

If you go to “Pages” on the left and select  “Gogle Map of Lodge Itinerary” and click the blue icon on the right it will be “Day 3” and be the location of the map shown above.  

Orca dorsal fin height

pair of killer whales
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The whale watching safaris from Grizzly Bear Lodge has a good chance of finding resident orca or killer whales.  The resident orca is the fish eaters while the transient orca are the male eaters and are less common in the summer.  This photo demonstrates the difference in size of the dorsal fins between a male and female orca. The males fin can be up to two meters (six feet) while the females are often less than half the height.

Grizzly Tour Lunchbreak

picnic lunch
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Picnic lunches are taken on all day tours.  Grizzly bear tours and whale watching trips normally leave the lodge at 8:00 am in the spring and summer and after August 24th at 7:30 am.  Whale watching picnic lunches are normally eaten in the boat while drifting with the humpback whales.  This most often occurs after a bathroom break in Telegraph Cove. The grizzly bear day’s lunches are eaten on the float tied up in the mouth of Glendale Bay.  Eating lunch in a skiff closer to the bears is not a good idea, as they might want to join the picnic, especially if smoked salmon is part of the lunch. The lunches are good with enough variety that even the guides do not become bored with the food and enough food that in my nine years with the lodge we have yet to eat all of a lunch. This photo is from late September as the guests are still wearing their coast against the chill of being on the water.

Steller sea lion haul-out

sealions on rocks
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Steller sea lions use land habitat as haul-out sites for periods of rest, molting, and as rookeries for mating and pupping during the breeding season. In this case it is a resting area as they migrate along the coast spending part of their spring and fall in the area where we watch whales. Steller sea lions have been known to migrate large distances (>400 nm) but it is presumed their routes remain coastal. They are solitary hunters but are often seen small groups, but may gather in large “rafts” at the surface near rookeries and haul outs. The haul-pouts are a noisy area as they are capable of powerful vocalizations that are accompanied by a vertical head bobbing motion by males.

Orca listening to hydrophone

orca comong
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Although the weather does not look the best it was one of the most interesting experiences of my summer. It was a foggy morning and thus a challenge to find the orca but the whale watching companies work together and being the faster boat on the water we were able to find the orca first. As they came out of the fog we had a hydrophone in the water listening to their calls to help locate them.  Two orcas came very close to the boat and stayed on the surface as the calls came over the speaker. These two remained in position for several minutes and did not go back down until the calls stopped. Orcas are members of the dolphin family and at times their curiosity is amazing. Note: as normal the fog lifted by noon and we were able to enjoy an afternoon with humpback whales.

Summer Slide – 3

knight inlet slide
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Talking to the “locals” this was the worst side that any can remember and the first time a slide warranted a warning by the Canadian Coast Guard over the marine radio. But even in this story there is a sliver lining.  The log salvagers in the area made years income in a month. Log salvagers are licensed and there were three boats collecting logs from the inlet and the beaches, which were later sold through log brokers for between fifty to several hundred dollars per log depending on the log.

 The photo show guests have their picture taken beside a “deadhead” (a sunken or partially sunken log). The slide brought down many trees with their roots still wrapped around large rocks and these floated upright.  At times the top of the deadhead would extend two meters (six feet) out of the water making them easy to see and avoid with the boat.

Summer Slide – 2

slide
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Slide debis

Travelling up Knight Inlet became like running through a maze. For the first two weeks the inlet was covered with slide debris and it was necessary to go quite slow and at times to push our way through the mess of small floating logs and branches.  As the trees came off the mountainside it was like they were in a debarking machine used by sawmills. As you can see they were free of branches and bark. The large islands of twisted trees were less of a problem as they were easy to move around. As the photo shows trees up to a meter (three feet) thick were snapped like toothpicks.  It is important to realize that in order for the logs in this pile to be so high out of the water (top logs close to three meters – nine feet) the other logs likely extended the same distance or more into the water. There were dozens of these floating rafts of logs in the inlet. More tomorrow…

 

Humpback Lunge feed

open mouth humpback
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Humpback lunging

Whale watching tours from Grizzly Bear Lodge were fortunate to view many humpback whales this summer. Most trips encounter ten or twelve different whales and some days up to twenty whales. Most days we were able to watch them lunge feed on the schools of herring.  These two photos show a whale coming straight up with mouth open, pausing for a few seconds before closing it’s mouth which was full of herring. Notice the back of the boat in the first photo that was a guided fishing charter out of Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island.

Pacific White-sided Dolphins

dolphins on tour
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“In British Columbia, Pacific white-sided dolphins move inshore/offshore throughout the year. Pacific white-sided dolphins are opportunistic predators feeding on over 60 species of fish and 20 species of cephalopods (octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish etc.). In BC, they feed on at least 13 different prey species, including salmon, herring, Pollock, shrimp, sablefish, smelt, and squid.  They forage cooperatively, though large groups may separate into smaller sub-groups for foraging purposes.  These feeding groups have been observed corralling and herding fish in a coordinated fashion.” Quote from Wild Whales b.c. cetacean sightings network website.  
This photo is of dolphins forging activity that we followed as they worked through a large bay (Parsons Bay) adjacent to Johnstone Strait.  There were at least three hundred dolphins that would churn the water in an area then stop and eat before rushing through another area. We observed them for about forty-five minutes.

Curious black bear cub

black bear alert
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The black bear tour occurs on your first evening in the lodge however black bears are often found on the grizzly bear tours and the whale watching trips. As all tours are by boat we travel along the shore looking for bears and frequently view bears on the beach looking for food. The lower the tide the better the opportunity for good viewing. It is normally the cubs that are concerned with our presence the mother are more likely to accept a boat coming close and the older bears, male or female, without cubs tend to ignore the boats. In this case the cub was taking notice but it did not run off as the mother was not concerned and that is who the cubs learn to ignore our intrusion.