On the whale watching day we frequently encounter pacific white side dolphins. The area along BC’s coast between Vancouver Island and the mainland has become a feeding area for the dolphins. Until twenty years ago they rarely appeared in fact so rare that native people did not have a name for them in their language. Now these dolphins are becoming more common in our viewing area. We see pods of several hundred.
Spyhoping is an action taken by orca to get a better view of their surroundings. Although most books published on whale / orca behaviour show many pictures of this activity it is very hard to get a picture. If you have your camera pointed in the right direction and happen to be taking a picture on another orca activity you might just get a spyhop.
A tale of two tails. The marine life in the waters of British Columbia is abundant. On most of the lodge whale watching safari we see orca, humpback whales, sealions, eagles, dolphins, Dall’s porpoise, often black bears and other whale watching boats. The other boats are important as they come from Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island and we come from the mainland BC. We are in constant radio contact and share location when anything of interest is located. In this case a tail slap from an orca and a dive from a humpback whale. Different shape and diffidently a difference in size.
The orca in the lodge whale safari area are mostly resident or fish eaters although at times we encounter the transient mammal eaters. The northern resident orca are located in waters north of Campbell River on Vancouver Island and while the transient orca are more often found in BC coastal inlets. This is a female orca as indicated by the shorter dorsal fin. Great shot of the eye patch.
The stellar sealions pass through the area, between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia, to and from Alaska in the spring and fall. They gather on the rocky shore in the area of Telegraph Cove by the hundreds to sun themselves and rest after feeding in our area before continuing their trip. This area of BC’s coast is so rich in food for these marine mammals that several dozen in the past three years have started to stay all summer and not make the journey north.
A glassy calm day in the waters of Johnstone Strait which is located between Vancouver and the BC mainland. An interesting photo if you look closely and see the reflection in the water around the eye patch.
Approximately five years ago humpback whales started spend more time in the area between Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s mainland coast. Telegraph Cove and our viewing area has always been popular for orca but now it is common to see a mother humpback and calf. Every summer we are seeing more calves in our viewing area.
Just like that another season has come to an end. We are grateful for all the wonderful staff and the guests this season. It was an excellent season and we are already looking forward to next May.
One of the highlights of the season was all of the new cubs out. It was awesome to see so many new cubs of the year and that is great news for our bear populations moving forward. We had great spring viewing and this continued through summer. On our river trips we started to see salmon arriving in August and enjoyed some great shoulder season viewing. The fish at the viewing platforms were a little late showing up this year, but viewing during late September at the platforms was great and the estuary viewing remained strong throughout the season.
Out in the whale watching world it was another year that saw large numbers of resident Orca who remained in the area right into October. The Humpback viewing was also great with large numbers feeding in Blackfish Sound. It is so amazing to have these magnificent animals back in our waters in such numbers.
Over the winter and spring we will be doing some repairs and maintenance. We rebuilt the front deck last spring, utilising cedar cut on site. We will continue with some siding, rooms improvements and hopefully a floating sauna ready for the start of our season.
2026 is already looking like a very busy season for us. We only have limited high season availability so please book early to ensure we have space for your group.
Looking forward to seeing you next year
Angus Reid
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