Pacific white-sided dolphins may be viewed on any of the tour days whether it is for grizzly bears, whale watching or on a trip to visit Trapper Rick on your extra day visiting Grizzly Bear Lodge. Vancouver Aquarium’s AquaFacts state “Pacific white-sided dolphins are present in First Nations 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. In the entire North Pacific, there are estimated to be approximately 900,000 Pacific white-sided dolphins. Dolphins travel in groups throughout their lives. In B.C., Pacific white-sided dolphins are usually encountered in groups of 10 – 100 animals, although some groups have been seen with 2,000 or more individuals.” As Lynn Morris’s photo indicates these dolphins are curious and if we are near a large pod they will come and play in the bow wake, if we stop they will swim beneath the boat.
This is probably as close as one needs to get to a steller sea lion. The sea lions migrate between California and Alaska. Traveling north in the spring (June) and back south in the fall (September) although for the past several years there have been several dozen sea lions that stay in the area all year. On this day we had stopped to watch a humpback whale feeding in Weynton Pass when this Sealion visited us. And by visited I mean it came right up to the edge of the boat as if to ask: “What are you doing?”
