Bavarian buzz: Whale Watching, Vancouver Island

I went whale watching with my Mom one sunny afternoon this summer. We left from the harbour in Cowichan Bay on a speedboat, zipping all the way down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca where two resident pods of orcas were hanging out (J pod and K pod). It’s too bad they didn’t get more creative with the names! J and K pod are kind of lame for these magnificent creatures.

Leaving Cowichan Bay for our whale watching adventure:

Even during the summer and with our heavy insulated suits on it was pretty cold on the speedboat when it was moving full speed. While waiting for some whales it was time for a few less exotic people pictures.

I think my Mom looks like a seasoned Arctic explorer in this one:

Quick primer on orcas:

There are two main types: resident and transient orcas. The resident orcas travel in bigger groups (~20-40 whales per pod around Vancouver Island at the moment) and eat fish (97% salmon in these waters). They tend to hang out in the same locations and have lots of vocalizations since these don’t seem to scare away the fish. Transient orcas travel in much smaller groups (2-6) and mostly eat marine mammals. They’re also a lot quieter since their prey can hear their clicks and chirps. Based on genetic tests, these two types of orca haven’t interbred for over 10,000 years!

We only saw resident orcas on our tour, although we tried to track down some transients spotted earlier in the day. Our guide was excellent and had been out doing tours for years and could identify most of the orcas by name based on their fin and dorsal patches. They are pretty difficult to photograph since they appear all over the place, but only for an instant before diving again, but I did manage to capture a few shots:

Other interesting facts (from Wikipedia and other):

· The females can live up to 90 years old, and male life expectancy is 50-60 years. In captivity life expectancy is only 20-30 years.

· Residents are all mommies’ boys (and girls), living with their mothers their entire lives

· Orcas have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals (after sperm whales, which have the largest brain of ANY animal). Orcas have brains ~5x the size of humans.

· Orcas will deliberately beach themselves to catch seals

· They can swim up to ~50 km/hr

· Orca pregnancies last 13-17 months. That seems like a long time to me, but I guess they aren't on their feet with their baby-weight.

The two pods seemed to be swimming together and we thought we might be in for a rare treat of a “super-pod” which is when multiple pods merge together. Apparently these are raucous parties with lots of spyhops, tail slaps, and screeches, chirps and echolocation. Plus a lot of orcas use the time to fraternize and flirt with each other. Unfortunately the matriarch of K pod decided to slow the pod down so we didn’t get a chance to see the mega-pod-party.

On our tour we did however catch a glimpse of Tucker, the whale-scat-sniffer-dog. He’s a black lab who can smell orca scat from over a kilometre away. He stands on the bow of the ship and helps tell the researchers where to go. He’s so useful because the research ships can stay further back from the whales themselves (i.e. not stress them) and still scoop up enough whale-poo samples before they quickly sink out of sight. The samples are jam-packed with genetic, dietary and physiological info. Useful stuff to countless marine biology PhDs and post-docs. On a nice day it makes me wish I had studied something cool like orcas!

Tucker has got a funky K-9 Ruffwear lifejacket and special goggles to protect his eyes, and is a graduate of the “Conservation Canines” program at the University of Washington. They apparently modify methods used to train dogs to find narcotics.

On our way back we made frequent stops for other wildlife sitings, including harbour seals sprawled out on rocks catching some sun.