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.
Continue reading Janie Wray: Listening to Whales
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.”
Continue reading Our neighbours, Pacific White Sided Dolphins – to cull or cultivate?
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Editor’s note: In addition to being marine tourist destinations close to a principal British Columbian shipping lane, Cortes, Quadra and Read Islands are visited by both the northern and southern pods of Killer Whales
University of British Columbia engineers are working to help clear up the acoustic smog that hinders endangered orcas’ ability to gather information vital to their survival.
Chronic underwater noise from shipping can drown out sounds marine mammals — such as the southern resident killer whales — use and rely on to communicate with each other, navigate, avoid danger or locate their prey.
Continue reading West Coast engineers aim to clear up acoustic smog impacting endangered killer whales
By Kaitlyn Bailey, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A provincial court judge has fined a scuba diver $12,000 for getting too close to a pod of killer whales near the Prince Rupert Harbour – the largest fine to be ordered for this type of offence.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said Aug. 22 that Thomas Gould, a scuba diver and owner of a commercial dive vessel, knowingly entered the water too close to a pod of seven northern resident killer whales near Prince Rupert Harbour on Apr. 25, 2020.
Continue reading Scuba diver fined $12K for getting too close to killer whales
A new UBC study found that the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population isn’t getting enough to eat.
As lead author Fanny Couture explained, “The study goes from 1979 to 2020. We were trying to understand whether the Southern Resident Killer Whale population had enough food to eat to sustain their energy needs. So a human needs 2,000 calories a day, a killer whale will need about 170,000 calories a day. What we found is that they were in energy deficits for six of the last 40 years. Some of them are spread out throughout the study period, but three of the last years (in the study), 2018 to 2020, they were in full energy deficits. They did not have enough food in the spring, the summer and the fall.”
Continue reading Southern Resident Killer Whales are not getting enough to eat, study says
