Humpback Whale

Date : Friday September 16th 2005
Location : Chattam Sound, BC Canada
Position : 54-18N 130-37W
Species : Humpback Whale
Total number seen : 10-15
Video: Diving humpback whale(2.88Mb length 0:11)
Breaching humpbackwhale(2.11Mb Length 0:08)

Remarks:
We spend the rest of the afternoon with a lot of humpback whales, breaching and feeding on krill.

Orca Transients

Date : Friday September 16th 2005
Location : Chattam Sound, BC Canada
Position : 54-18N 130-37W
Species : Killer whale Orcinus orca (Transients)
Total number seen : 3
Video:


Remarks
Today we went whalewatching with Prince Rupert Adventure Tours.
Our goal was to see humpback whales but we started with a group a 3 Transients!
The group consists of 2 males and 1 females. This group was possible the T170 group.
I have one positive ID of T170. The other male might be T171
The female, T172 was speeding with 12 knots.





We saw the transients at position 54-18N 130-37W in Chattam Sound, heading south.

Humpback Whale

Date : Thursday September 15th 2005
Location : Queen Charlotte Strait, BC Canada
Position : 51-15N 127-52W
Species : Humpback Whale
Total number seen : 5-6

Remarks

In the Queen Charlotte Strait we’ve noticed several blows of different humpback whales. In total we saw 5 or 6 different whales.

Late afternoon we passed a humpback whale. It breaches more then 25 times. This one beats the record of the whale in Esperanza Inlet.

Pacific White Sided Dolphin

Date : Thursday September 15th 2005
Location : Queen Charlotte Strait, BC Canada
Position : 51-15N 127-52W
Species : Pacific White Sided Dolphin
Total number seen : Approx. 200

Remarks

The Inside Passage.
It was pretty early this morning. Departure time for the ferry ride to Prince Rupert was at 07.30. The weather was beautiful. The sun was shining and there was almost no wind.
At approximately nine o’clock it looks like a big surf was coming at us. I’ve never seen anything like that before. When we came closer the surf turned out to be a large group of Pacific Whitesided dolphins. The group consists of more then 200 individuals. They were feeding and because of the speed of the ferry we passed them very quickly. Our photo and video camera where inside. By the time I picked them up, we had passed the group.

A half hour later we passed another, smaller group of dolphins. They where scattered all over the place.

Humpback Whale

Date : Thursday September 8th 2005
Location : Esperanza Inlet, Vancouver Island Canada
Position : 49-51N 126-55W
Species : Humpback whale
Total number seen : 2
Video: Humpback Whale breaching(1.48Mb length 0:05)

Remarks
On our way near Centre Island in the Esperanza Inlet we saw 2 humpback whales: a mother with her calf.
They where slapping with their pectoral fins and the baby breaches more then ten times. Also mom breached one time. This was truly amazing.








On our way back we ran into the humpbacks again.
We thought they where a little disturbed, according to the tail slaps they’ve made. We left the whales alone and went back to Zeballos.
We’ve had a wonderful afternoon.

Orca Northern Residents

Date : Tuesday September 6th 2005
Location : Johnstone Strait, BC Canada
Position : 50-30N 126-36W
Species : Killer whale Orcinus orca (Northern Residents)
Total number seen : Approx. 60
Video:

Northern Residents A30s


Northern Residents I15s

Remarks
We saw a lot of whales today. There were the A30s and I15s, including I41 with his collapsed dorsal fin and the G17s who visiting Johnstone Strait for the first time this year. The different families stayed on their own and didn’t mingle with each other.


There was a lot activity going on. A84 (A50 Clio’s baby) did a lot of breaching and we saw A39 (Pointer) tail slapping.




It was an amazing day. Suddenly some Pacific white sided dolphins show up. With the A11s, and A8s returning from the east and the A12s and I11s coming in from Blackney Pass, the total number of whales were approximately up to 60 individuals.

Pacific White Sided Dolphin

Date : Tuesday September 6th 2005
Location : Johnstone Strait, BC Canada
Position : 50-30N 126-36W
Species : Pacific White Sided Dolphin
Total number seen : Approx. 10

Remarks:

Orca Transients

Date : Monday September 5th 2005
Location : Johnstone Strait, BC Canada
Position : 50-33N 126-47W
Species : Killer whale Orcinus orca (Transients)
Total number seen : 3

Remarks
Today we went out whale watching on the Lukwa. With my cell phone I checked the comments of OL to find out if there where any whales in the area.
OL reported that there where Transients in Johnstone Strait and the Resident groups (A8s, A11s, A30s and I15s) where east of the Robson Bight. That looks promising.
From Telegraph we headed east and soon we spotted the Transients. The group consist of one male and two females. We lost the male and female very quickly and Wayne, the captain of the Lukwa, decided to follow the other female. She was in a hurry and headed west with a speed of 9 knots to Weynton Passage. She was also calling and mimicking the distinctive call of the I15s. We followed the whale for a while and suddenly she splashed her tail ones and breached directly after that. Then she headed west again with high speed. Onboard of the Lukwa we thought the whale was T2. At Weynton Passage we left the whale and we went north through Weynton Passage into Blackfish Sound. We saw no more whales that day.


Transient T2