Orca sightings

[glacierfire]

hey folks. I'm an artist who's moving from nice warm sunny Florida to Nanaimo to be with her husband who's Canadian. I managed to drag him away from Edmonton to Nanaimo mainly because we agreed the cost of living, activities, and life style were more our speed. Which is extremely exciting for me since I've participated with the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network (and have been an active member of a widely known marine wildlife conservation group) for a number of years. I know we're a fair bit north of San Juan Island and Victoria where it's common to see J, K, & L Pod (Southern Resident pods of Orcas) but how common is it to see Orcas in the waters near Nanaimo? I'm absolutely in love with an fascinated by them and can usually pick family members out of photos I see. Especially "Ruffles" and "Pender". All answers are appreciated

[Nostradama]

hey folks. I'm an artist who's moving from nice warm sunny Florida to Nanaimo to be with her husband who's Canadian. I managed to drag him away from Edmonton to Nanaimo mainly because we agreed the cost of living, activities, and life style were more our speed. Which is extremely exciting for me since I've participated with the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network (and have been an active member of a widely known marine wildlife conservation group) for a number of years. I know we're a fair bit north of San Juan Island and Victoria where it's common to see J, K, & L Pod (Southern Resident pods of Orcas) but how common is it to see Orcas in the waters near Nanaimo? I'm absolutely in love with an fascinated by them and can usually pick family members out of photos I see. Especially "Ruffles" and "Pender". All answers are appreciated

When I lived on Protection Island (in Nanaimo Harbour, small, and many commute into Nanaimo by boat or small private ferry to work) an Orca actually sounded right beside our boat. Very, very unusual to see one in the channel between Protection Island and the city, I think. One of the most memorable events of my life. I've seen pods perhaps three times other than that. Once, coming back from Vancouver by BC ferry, there was a tremendous rush of people to one side of the boat, and when I went to see what was happening, there was a pod travelling past the ferry.

[Tenspot]

I lived and boated for 10 years in Port Hardy, and very often had to bring in fishing gear because of the killer whales. The commercials had one hell of a time with them at the mouth of Hardy Bay. Frequently saw them under our boat, surfacing within feet of our bow. Also saw them chase seals up onto the rocks on the small islands. It got so as "The Blackfish" were a PIA.

[sparky]

hey folks. I'm an artist who's moving from nice warm sunny Florida to Nanaimo to be with her husband who's Canadian. I managed to drag him away from Edmonton to Nanaimo mainly because we agreed the cost of living, activities, and life style were more our speed. Which is extremely exciting for me since I've participated with the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network (and have been an active member of a widely known marine wildlife conservation group) for a number of years. I know we're a fair bit north of San Juan Island and Victoria where it's common to see J, K, & L Pod (Southern Resident pods of Orcas) but how common is it to see Orcas in the waters near Nanaimo? I'm absolutely in love with an fascinated by them and can usually pick family members out of photos I see. Especially "Ruffles" and "Pender". All answers are appreciated

The Orcas will pay a surprise visit to Nanaimo's harbor once in a while. My wife caught a glimpse this Sept. Maybe they follow the salmon in during the spawn.
Cheers.
Sparky

[glacierfire]

hey Sparky!

GREAT photo! Those guys are Transient orcas, not the Southern Resident orcas. Those guys eat seals, porpoises, moose... Not even kidding. They'll eat anything they can get their mouths around aside from people LOL! I'm pretty sure the bull is T14 "Pender" due to what looks like a few nicks in the front of his dorsal fin, but the long and angled shape has me thrown a bit. There's a whale from the southern resident L pod named L57 who's been missing and presumed dead since Feb of 2009 who resembles that bull in both upper saddle patch and dorsal shape. But Id need to see a full saddle or up close photo of this guy (or his lady consorts) for a true ID. Transients would make more sense. But I'm SHOCKED you guys don't have your own crew of resident orcas given the salmon you all have!!! I look forward to seeing more of them!

[seaman]

once or twice a year a nice group of transient orcas come through and massacre all the seals they can catch, usually entrance island is a sure spot they'll stop by, I'm not aware of any resident whales in the area, porpoise are quite common. had a cool run in with a baby orca in port hardy a couple summers ago it was rubbing up against the boat, was pretty wild, had a group of dolphins come up and start buzzing us out at pine island this summer those things are amazing swimmers so much power, and so play full and curious,

[seaman]

ha you beat me too it, there's not that many resident salmon in the area, the commercial fleet over harvest the herring so the few salmon who return to this area migrate out and back not many residents the ones that are here are small and aren't plentiful enough to sustain a pod of resident orcas,

[glacierfire]

oh that's a huge shame. I know that's a big worry down further south near Victoria also. That's really sad that there's so much over fishing! I wish people would take better care of natural resources especially when the whales are pretty much critically endangered with only 88 resident orcas left in the area.

Also, because I'm odd, I did a comparison photo of that bull and L57.


Interesting, no? L57 has been documented as missing since Nov2008/Feb2009 when L Pod left the area for the winter. I hope you don't mind if I submit the comparisons to the Orca Network and try to get a more positive ID?

[patriciainnanaimo]

A large group of Orcas went past our house today (Rocky Point area off Fillinger) at about 8:30am heading north. Our neighbour thinks they were a Superpod of Transients but we're new to this so not sure. She said it was the first time a group had come in so close. We've seen orcas way off a few times since we moved here (1 year), so it was a thrill to see them up so close today.