Photo Credit: Jackie Hildering - ""I33 and I45 of the I31s"                                                    "Members of the A8s spyhop"

Although winter winds often impair whale sightings at this time of the year, we humans are still often able to know if there are killer whales in the area by listening for them underwater.

While the mammal-eating killer whales ("transients") are very quiet in order to suceed in hunting prey that can hear them, the fish -eating killer whales ("residents") are astoundingly vocal.  The residents can in fact afford to "live in a world of underwater sound" (a great Dr. John Ford quote) because fish generally have really poor hearing.

So, by listening underwater with hydrophones, Captain Jim heard that there were resident killer whales in the area early last week.  To the highly trained ear, it is even possible to know which family-group ("matriline") of resident killer whales is vocalizing since every matriline sounds different.

Dr. Paul Spong and Helena Symonds of the Orca Lab are the ones that always have their highly trained ears to the water in our area.  They have been able to conclude that the A5s and I31 matrilines have been around for at least a week.  You can listen along with them and read their updates at www.orca-live.net.

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

Last Friday, Captain Jim, our naturalist Jackie and dive buddy Natasha Dickinson had hoped to be able to retreive some submerged sea lion bones for the Whale Interpretive Centre (WIC).  However, one of our great winter storms meant there was too much wave action to dive in and retrieve the bones.  When nature delivers a dead marine mammal, we want to be sure we can use if for educational purposes and therefore submerge the bones in the ocean so that they can be cleaned naturally.

The storm meant that the bone retrieval will have to wait but Jackie and Natasha grabbed the chance to dive in more sheltered waters, under the Telegraph Cove dock.  The photos show two of our marine neighbours living under the dock.  The sea star is the largest species in the world, the sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides).   It can be up to 1 metre across, have up to 26 arms and travel at speeds up to 2.5 km/hour.  It is a voracious predator!  Our divers reported that there were at least 20 under one small section of the dock.

The fish in the photograph on the right had Jackie and Natasha particularly excited.  It is a decorated warbonnet (Chirolophis decoratus) and has an eel-like body up to 40 + cm long.  The remarkable "decorations" on its head are cirri that may allow it to camouflage, attract prey and be an ambush hunter.

Jackie reported the ocean temperature was 42 degrees F (5.5 degrees C) - that would be the 'cold' part of cold-water diving.  Brrrr!!!

File Photos

Happy New Year to all of our friends and guests!  It has been a fairly quiet winter so far.  Captain Jim and Mary took family and friends on a boat ride over New Years to see if there was any activity on the water.  We saw lots of seabirds such as black oyster catchers, harlequin ducks, loons, lots of common murres, lots of bald eagles, ancient murlets, white winged and surf scoters and two golden eyes. 

There were half a dozen Steller sea lions around the Plumper Islands.  We went up as far as Foster Island and cut across to the White Cliffs and through the islets searching for a humpback sighting, but to no avail.

However, while standing on our home deck on Sunday evening we heard killer whale blows and surmised it must be trasients!  This morning we had a wonderful call from Troy Bright at Orcalab who is now hearing resident orcas somewhere in the near area.  We will update you when we have more information!

From the Office:

It was a pretty exciting day in Telegraph Cove today, as it was only the second time in over thirty years that Captain Jim has ever seen transient (marine mammal eaters) killer whales right inside the Cove.  We picked them up as they were heading out of the Cove past the Gikumi and we figured that there were at least four animals.  We were so excited that we jumped into our car and headed over to Ella Point to see if we could get any ID photos.

The killer whales were just passing the Point and we were only able to get some distant shots.  We think that we can ID the adult male and adult female.  We'll let you know what we find out!

T44, the transient killer whale that was found dead in the spring is almost ready to bring up from the ocean bottom.  We recently checked the lower jaw bone and as you can see it is coming along nicely.  A great winter day in the Cove!

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

 We've had many of these remarkable creatures around in the last weeks.  They can be seen swimming right by the dock in Telegraph Cove.  They are hooded nudibranchs (Melibe leonia)  and are up to 10 cm long.  A nudibranch is a type of sea slug that has naked ("nudi") gills ("branch").

Our area has some 200 different species of sea slug and the hooded nudibranch is one of the most unusual looking species, not looking like a slug at all.  Many mistake the hooded nudibranch for a jellyfish but it does not have stinging cells like jellies do.  The animal's large disc-like head lets it feed on plankton and small crustaceans and the lobed structures on the animal's back are the naked gills.  If a predator goes after a hooded nudibrach, it can swim slowly by undulating its body back and forth.  If the predator goes after the gills, these detach and stick to the predator's mouth, causing distraction.

There are so many hooded nudibranchs around Telegraph Cove at this time of year as they collect to lay eggs.  It is an amazing sight to see groups of 100s of them collecting on the kelp.  Since sea slugs can only sense light and dark, the way they find one another is by releasing pheromones.  They send out a watermelon-like scent that then attracts other hooded nudibranchs.  After mating, both animals lay eggs since they are hermaphrodites and then they die. 

The image on the right shows some of the egg masses.  Each cluster of eggs is only about one centimeter wide and contains thousands of eggs that will hatch to be plankton.  From whales to sea slugs - this area is amazing in its biodiversity!

For more information on the hooded nudibranchs - see http://www.seaslugforum.net/message/20127

Photo credit: Neil McDaniel

From the Office:

There has been several matrilines of fish-eating killer whales (residents) in the area this last week.  We have had reports of the A12s; A30s; G17s and I31s being around.  That's alot of killer whales!

These images were kindly provided by underwater photographer Neil McDaniel and were taken while he was in transit to a dive site on November 10, 2009.  Even without being able to see the animals' saddle-patches, we can conclude that the A30s were in the area that day thanks to the distinct nick in the forward part of one animal's dorsal.

This is 'Bend' (A72) who has had the nick since first seen in 1999.  It is know that the fish-eating killer whales stay in their matrilines for their whole lives.  Therefore, if A72 was there, the rest of the matriline would be there too.  There are now 10 animals in the A30s with 'Blinkhorn' (A54) having had another calf this year.

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

How do whales lose excess heat?

We'd like to share a great question put to us from a young girl.  She wondered how whales got rid of extra heat; did they pant, did they sweat?

This is a particularyly enlightened question, especially for a child, since it reflects that knowedge that whales are mammals that are warm-blooded and that must, therefore, be able to maintain a constant internal temperature.

The whale-like marine mammals (cetaceans) do not sweat or pant.  They lose heat by controlling how much blood flows through their fins.  The fins are not as insulated as the rest of the whale's body since hte fins are not covered with blubber.  If cetaceans need to shunt off heat, more blood goes into their fins and the heat is radiated out from the blood into the water.

This is also why you see sea lions with their pectoral fins in the air.  Their fins are also highly vascularised and without blubber, so when they dip them in the water and hold them up, the water evaporates and carries away more body heat.

The images show you the pectoral fins of a Steller sea lion and a mature male killer whale (A38; aka 'Blackney").

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

From the Office:

While we were away at the 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Quebec, there was a mass stranding of Humbolt squid in Hardy Bay (Port Hardy, to the north of Telegraph Cove).  This species of squid travels in large schools, is carnivorous and can be up to 2m and 45 kg.  They are the only squid know to have teeth-like structures on the suckers. (see image)

Humbolt's are more typically found in cold, deep waters in the Eastern Pacific.  In fact, they are named after the Humbolt Current.  Although they have been seen in our area before (there have been sightings since 2003), never have they been in such huge numbers.  There were news reports that Humbolts were stranding off teh north-eastern coast of Vancouver in early August.  We know that these strandings continued into late September, thanks to our dear friends Pat and Bill Haley who shared pictures of the squid on the beach in Tofino (near Schooner Bay).

In early October, Humbolt squid reports started coming in from Northern Vancouver Island pilots (thank you Gord Jenkins) that the animals were being seen near Rivers Inlet, to the north of Port Hardy.  The ultimate mass stranding in Hardy Bay began on October 17, 2009.  Why all these huge squid?

It is speculated that the population of Humbolt squid is increasing due to the overfishing of large predatory fish such as tuna, marlin and swordfish.  It appears that the range of this larger population is expanding which is likely related to climate variations and food supply e.g. hake, pilchard and herring. 

Why do they strand?  No one yet has definitively been able to answer this.  The big storm just prior to October 17th may have carried them into Hardy Bay where their death may have been related to the temperature of the water or that the water in the Bay had a higher concentration of fresh water.

Our head naturalist took the pictures of the decaying squid.l  She may have missed the stranding event itself as she was in Quebec, but was not going to miss the opportunity to collect some of the Humbolt squid's beaks for educational purposes (such as for use in the Whale Interpretive Center).  She reports that the smell of the decaying squid is almost as bad as the dead sealion she recently helped Captain Jim retrieve from the ocean bottom.  All in the name of environmental education........

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

From the Office:

The weather allowed us to get out on the water today with the aim of getting insight into humpback behaviours in the fall.  There were at least 7 animals in the area - 3 known animals ("Freckles", "Moonstar" and "Corporal"; 2 animals new to us and 2 for which we could not get ID photographs.

Our humpback mission was interrupted by the sudden appearance of whales with pointier dorsal fins  . . . mammal-eating ("transient ") killer whales. There were at least 8 of them and thankfully Jared Towers of DFO was in the area to ID them.  T037 and T034 were identified as well as a new calf in the group.  We don't think the transients made a kill in the time we observed them but  they did travel past Pacific white-sided dolphins , Pacific harbour seals and Steller sea lions. 

Just a few hours on the water on a day in October and we see all this.  It really makes us reflect on how much we miss in these months where the weather makes it more challenging to be out on the water.  

We'll keep you updated as the weather allows. 

Photo Credits; Jackie Hildering


Captain Jim, Jackie and Mary attended the 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Quebec City.  It was an amazing week  gathering with many friends and talks about the latest research happening around the world with marine mammals.  Post conference we spent several days on the north east shore of the St. Lawrence River.  On the way we stopped where the Saguenay River enters the St. Lawrence at Tadoussac, Quebec and naturally we went whale watching. 

We saw more minke whales in one place (14 plus) than we have ever seen before.  They were actively feeding with over 200 grey seals as well in the same area.  The seals were impressive as they porpoised as a group through the water.  Several beluga whales were also at the mouth of the river, heading out into the St. Lawrence.  We then headed east towards the research lab 'Meriscope'.Our friend Dany Zbinden, gave us a tour of the facility and then we went on the water and encountered more minke whales. The next day Jackie went out on the water again and this time they did encounter two blue whales and two fin back whales.  We are still trying to peel her off of the ceiling!  On the way back to Quebec City, crossing the Saguenay on the ferry we again had a nice look at several belugas blowing bubbles and possibly feeding.  We had a fabulous two weeks in this 'belle' province.

We have been checking OrcaLive and we are looking forward to getting back to the activity in Johnstone Strait and beautiful British Columbia!