Tag Archives: Biggs

Rivers & Oceans

More Killer Whales and Humpback Whales in Our Waters

There have been a lot more killer whales and Humpback whales in our waters lately. According to a new study from UBC, the inside waters off Vancouver Island are critical habitat for West Coast Transient, or Bigg’s killer whales. The return of Humpback whales has been heralded as a success story, and there are now also reports of gray whale sightings. Last week, Cortes Currents interviewed two of the scientists involved in this research.

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Rivers & Oceans

Janie Wray: Listening to Whales

Over 100 people came to the Quadra Community Centre on December 7, to learn about the acoustic dialects and social connections of Orca, Humpback and Fin Whales. Sierra Quadra invited Janie Wray –  CEO and co-founder of the North Coast Cetacean Society, BC Whales, and the manager of the BC Hydrophone Network – to share from her more than two decades of research.

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Animals, Rivers & Oceans

Our neighbours, Pacific White Sided Dolphins – to cull or cultivate?

There have been numerous reports of Pacific White Sided Dolphins in our vicinity this past year. The most recent came from Powell River, where pods of around 200 dolphins were spotted from the shore on December 17th and again on December 28th. One of the reports from Campbell River mentioned more than 100 swimming through Discovery Passage. On their website, Wildwaterways Adventures describes this species in its list of wildlife that fill the Discovery Islands. According to the Times Colonist, “After 100 years of absence, large numbers of Pacific White Sided Dolphins are back in the northern part of British Columbia’s Salish Sea.” 

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Animals, Tourism

A wild water adventure: seeking orca, seals and other marine life

A group of 10 Cortes Island residents set out from Gorge Harbour in a Zodiac. 

“I loved it that we were all together on this boat, like tourists from Cortes out there hunting for a sighting of a whale. Everybody was in that together. Our only purpose today was to get out onto the water, look around and see what creatures we’d see. And it just seemed like community,” explained Jane Newman.

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Tourism

The passion behind Wild Waterways Adventures

Wild Waterways Adventures officially launched last year but for Jenefer Smalley it is part of a lifelong pursuit.

“My whole entire life, I’ve had an affinity and a connection with wildlife. I thought I would go to college to become a wildlife biologist or a fisheries biologist. Then when I finally went to college, I realized I wasn’t really into running statistics and mathematical models, I wanted to be out in the field with wildlife. So when I graduated, just on a whim, I got a job in the field of ecotourism out of Campbell River,” explained Smalley.

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