CANADA: Whale Watching

We took a boat from Campbell River, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, to mainland BC to start our grizzly bear tour.

Enroute we sailed through Discovery Passage. 

Because of it's deep channel, massive tides surge through a narrow space creating strong currents that can reach 15km/hr (9mi/hr).

The fast-moving waters are constantly bringing nutrients from the ocean floor up toward the surface, creating an exceptionally rich food chain that supports an abundance of marine life.

The water around Campbell River is deep and cold with temperatures ranging from 7 °C (44F) in the winter to 13 °C (55F) in the summer.

Beneath the water the plankton thrive, feeding small fish such as herring. Feeding on the herring are the larger fish, including Pacific salmon. 

And feeding on the salmon are the seals, sea lions, porpoises, and dolphins. 

Both humpback whales and orcas (killer whales) are regular visitors to these abundant feeding grounds. Our big goal was to see the whales. 

We were looking for telltale signs like big bumps in the water, blow stacks of water, tails flipping or a super exciting sighting would be a whale breaching out of the water!

But nature isn’t like a zoo, so patience and eagle eyes are required. Some days you get lucky, and some days you don’t..... Patience, a tough virtue to master.....  

And then we got lucky! Not only could we see them, but we could hear them!

Humpback whales migrate thousands of kilometres each year. During winter, they gather in the waters of Hawaii, Mexico, and Central America to mate and give birth. By late spring, they begin the long journey north to feed in Alaska and British Columbia, with Discovery Passage among their favourite stops.

Each humpback whale can be recognized by the unique black-and-white pattern on the underside of its tail fluke, allowing scientists to track individuals over many years. Our guide was able to identify a couple of the whales. (Having said that, he could have given them any name and we would have been impressed.)

Humpbacks are not social, but, interestingly, we saw several humpbacks together (more on that later.) They are mainly solitary travelers, with only temporary associations that last days or weeks. The strongest bond is between a mother and her calf, which stay together for about a year before separating.

Humpbacks feed mostly on krill and small schooling fish. For enquiring minds, humpbacks have two hunting methods – a feeding technique called lunge-feeding, where they surge upward through dense prey with their mouths wide open and then filter the water out through plates.

They also use bubble-net feeding, a cooperative method in which several whales blow rings of bubbles to trap fish before lunging through the center together.

This was super exciting to see and more impressively, to get a photo of it.

Humpbacks were nearly wiped out by commercial whaling but have made a comeback since the 1960s. Their numbers around Campbell River have grown steadily. 

Orcas are the other kind of whale in the area. There are two kinds of orcas that inhabit the waters around Campbell River. There are resident orcas and transient orcas.

Orcas have strong family bonds. The resident orcas live in matrilineal family pods that remain together for life. Resident orcas are highly social and vocal, using complex calls and dialects unique to each pod.

Transient orcas feed on seals, sea lions, and porpoises, traveling in smaller family groups led by older females. Transients are quieter hunters, communicating less to avoid alerting prey. 

Cocktail Party Trivia: Orcas are also known as “Killer Whales”. Hundreds of years ago Spanish sailors saw them hunting and killing other whales, so they called them “asesina de ballenas” — meaning “whale killer,” which when translated to English became “killer whales”. 

But, “killer whales” are not whales, they are actually dolphins. They earned their fierce nickname because they are apex predators, meaning they have no natural enemies. Orcas may hunt seals, sea lions, fish, squid, or even other whales. 

There are strict federal guidelines to protect the whales, keeping at least 200 metres away from orcas and 100 metres from other species.

When the sun went down we agreed it was a successful day with lots of whale sightings at sea and grizzly bear sightings on land.

We felt very fortunate and grateful!