Tag Archives: Orca

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The resident orcas arrive in the area adjacent to the East Coast of Vancouver Island in the Johnstone Strait normally by the start of July and remain in the area through October.  The residents are the salmon eating orca. The transient orca, mammal eaters, is in the are all year but spend much of their time is the inlets away from much of the marine traffic. R. W. Baird says “Membership in each (group) begins at birth and cultural bonds and identity continue throughout life. Residents and transients differ in diet, vocal traditions, habitat range, morphology (shape of dorsal fin, etc.), pigmentation patterns (such as the eye patch) and genetically. Though they cross paths routinely throughout the inland waters of BC and Washington State, the two forms are becoming, or by some accounts are already, separate species. DNA work indicates that they have not interbred for at minimum one hundred thousand years.” This great photos provided by Marc and Solange Edouard from France are of two female resident orcas and a lone male.

The whale / orca watching safari day from Grizzly Bear Lodge start with a fifty minute boat ride from the lodge to the area of Johnstone Strait.  Along the way we search the shore for black bears, eagles and anything else that moves.  Once we are in the Strait’s area or eyes turn to the water for marine wildlife such as seals, sea lions, dall’s porpoise, white-sided dolphins, minkie whales, humpback whales and of course killer whales or orca. The resident or salmon eating orca we normally see in this area travel in family pods of ten to twenty members. The pods are dominated by the “mother” (oldest female) making them matriarchal however it is older males (sons stay with their mother all their life) that tend to attract most of the picture taking.

The day whale watching means we travel to the area of Johnstone Strait near Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island BC.  The resident, salmon eating orca, arrive in early late June and stay through October while the transient, mammal eating orca are in the area all year.  Confused?  The first serious study of the orca populations in the mid-1970’s started as a summer study so when the scientist arrived in July and left in September the orca were always in the area and therefore there named resident orca.  Little did they know that this was a summer feeding area as the orca followed the salmon?  The transient orcas, which were in the area, spend more time in the remote inlets in the summer because there was more boat traffic.  The transient orca still travel through our viewing area in the summer but this photo is of a resident as determined by the size and shape of its dorsal fin, taller and narrower at the base. Photo provide by guest Alferd Bittner.