Whale Watch Telegraph Cove - Stubbs Island - Vancouver Island

Monday, March 8, 2010

2010-03-08T20:46:00Z

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

We've had some March Madness with weather these last few days - snow, hail, winds and sun - all in one day. Throughtout it all, whenever we are able to get out on the water, Steller sea lions are still a common sight.

Their wonderful blubber layer allows them to deal with the current 7 degree Celcius ocean cold while maintaining their mammalian core temperature of 37 degrees Celcius.

The images above are grabbed from a video our naturalist, Jackie, got yesterday when a male Steller sea lion inquisitively made a swim-by while she was diving. Unlike the sea lion so beautifully adapted for a marine existence, she had to wear a very thick dry suit to maintain her mammalian core temperature of 37 degrees Celcius!

Monday, March 1, 2010

2010-03-01T21:29:00Z

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

Lingcod Mating Season:

Here is a glimpse into what is happening under the ocean's surface right now. These images are from yesterday (Feb 28/10) when the local dive club undertook one of their lingcod egg mass surverys (LEMS) for the Vancouver Aquarium.

Lingcod females (which are up to 1.5m and almost 50kg) are currently laying their watermelon-sized masses of eggs. When finished spawning, off the females go to deeper water. The male takes over, fastidiously guarding the eggs to increase the chances of baby lingcod hatching. Although the males are much smaller than the females, they take their genetically imprinted job very seriously and will bar their considerably sized teeth and flare their gill plates in order to deter predators......surveying divers!

Our naturalist, Jackie, even reports having her dive slate knocked out of her hands by a male lingcod, just as she was writing "male absent". Needless to say she made a quick correction in her survery notes.

The egg mass survey is necessitated by lingcod having been overfished. The number of egg masses gives an indication of the abundance of lingcod in an area and the size of the egg mass is telling of how old the mother lingcod are. Compared to more Southern areas in BC, the LCEMS data has revealed that we have some prolific older mamas here (the egg masses are all huge) and that the population is more abundant. There is still much need for conservation, however.

More information can be found at http://www.vanaqua.org/lingcodsurvery/.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

2010-02-10T18:31:00Z

Photo Credit: Jackie Hildering T148 Members of the T55s

Last week, again, there were transient and resident killer whales heard in our area. It is much rarer to hear the transients make calls, as their ability to hunt is compromised when they vocalize. If the transients make sound, they alert their marine mammal prey and lose the potential of a sneak attack. It could be that they could 'afford' to be vocal because they had already made a kill.

Monday, January 25, 2010

2010-01-25T17:33:00Z

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.

Monday, January 11, 2010

2010-01-11T17:16:00Z

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!!!

Monday, January 04, 2010

2010-01-04T17:08:00Z

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!

Thursday, December 03, 2009

2009-12-04T01:23:00Z

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!

Monday, November 23, 2009

2009-11-23T17:22:00Z

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

Monday, November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T17:04:00Z

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.

Monday, November 9, 2009

2009-11-09T17:03:00Z

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").

November 02, 2009

2009-11-02T18:01:00Z

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........

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

2009-10-28T20:10:00Z

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.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

2009-10-20T21:52:00Z

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!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

2009-10-07T23:22:00Z

Photo Credit : Jackie Hildering

From the Wheelhouse:

Today we provided a trip to the rest of the international students from Nanaimo and Ladysmith (yesterday we had the first 1/2 of the group). This was the final trip of the season but not for lack of wildlife! This is one of the most vibrant times of the year, as is evident by everything we saw today.

We saw killer whales (fish-eaters; the A30 and A36 matrilines with A12); at least 9 humpback whales; Pacific white-sided dolphins; Dalls porpoise; harbour seals and many Steller sea lions. We could even see chum salmon on the surface of the water which testifies to there being very good reason for the "resident" killer whales to still be in the area (chum salmon are their 2nd favourite species).

To describe a few of the highlights:

Getting a good look at the mature male killer whale ("Craycroft" / A32) while he was fishing.
Pacific white-sided dolphins interacting with the fish-eating killer whales as well as riding in the bow wake of the boat.
Three humpbacks travelling tightly together and appeared to be socializing with incredible acrobatic displays. We saw these whales, that are as big as school buses) leaping out of the water and lobbing their enormous heads at the surface. Thanks to the effort we have put in over 5 years to ID the humpbacks, we know that it was two juvenile animals ("Pultney" /BCZ0297 and "Twister") interacting with an adult female ("Chunky"/BCX0081).

Team Stubbs Island Whale Watching is now off to the biannual international marine mammal conference (in Quebec City) to hear the latest science on our amazing neighbours.

Monday, October 6, 2009

2009-10-06T23:05:00Z

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

From the Wheelhouse:

Today we had the great joy of showing our beautiful backyard to the international students who are spending time at the following Vancouver Island secondary schools: Ladysmith; Dover Bay and Nanaimo District.

And oh boy was Nature kind to these ambassadors from Germany, Thailand, China, Brazil, France and Spain.

There were huge concentrations of small fish in the area (Captain Jim noted that he couldn't recall ever having seen so much feed on the sounder). The result was that we had feeding harbour porpoise, Dall's porpoise, Steller sea lions and humpbacks all in the same area. Of course, there was so much bird activity too.

Some of the great highlights were watching the humpback "Ripple" (BCX1063) breach out of the water (see image) and seeing "Freckles" repeatedly lunge feed.

But, that's not all. We also watched the A30 matriline of fish-eating killer whales forage for salmon. They did this in an area with a lot of current and we even saw them surfing on the waves in this area.

The students certainly left with a solid sense of why this is Beautiful Britsh Columbia.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

2009-10-05T00:31:00Z

Photo credit: Lisa Abernethy

From the Wheelhouse:

It was a gorgeous day for the last tour of the season. Sunshine and calm seas as we left Telegraph Cove. Due to the cold night and first frost of the year, there was a fog bank towards the mainland and as we ventured into the fog this afternoon we had great luck in finding 'Stripe' the humpback whale swimming just off of Donegal Head.

There were lots of Steller sealions around and we encountered some Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall's porpoise and a few harbour seals. When we left Donegal Head we cruised into Blackfish Sound hoping it would be a little clearer. We were fortunate to encounter KC and one other humpback whale which we didn't identify. The waters are rich with feed at this time of the year and the bird activity is quite spectacular.

We would like to thank all of our staff both in the office and on the boats. It take all of our 'team' to make things happen and we wish all of them a restful winter. To all of our guests this season we hope that you enjoyed your visit to Broughton and Blackfish Archipelagos and to our home - Telegraph Cove. Thanks everyone who supported the Whale Interpretive Centre and we look forward to another amazing season in 2010.

We will update the blog throughout the winter months as we hopefully encounter some of the marine mammals that come by and any exciting events that Mother nature brings our way.

Cheers;

Jim and Mary Borrowman (and Buddy too)

Saturday, October 03, 2009

2009-10-03T20:05:00Z

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

Photo credit: Captain Jim

From the Wheelhouse:

Stubbs Island Whale Watching sponsored the Young Naturalist Club of Northern Vancouver Island today (see group photo) and nature was kind to them! For the first time ever, we saw 6 humpbacks directed at the same mass of small schooling fish. The frenzy of birds, fins, tails and trumpetting sounds of whales was nothing short of sensational and dizzying.

They saw the humpbacks lunge feeding and tried to help us in identifying the whales as individuals. Not an easy task today with the number of humpbacks and the intense activty. This really is the most exciting time of the year for humpbacks.

They also saw Steller sea lions, a baby seal and yes, fish-eating ("resident") killer whales. The 3-big brothers (the A36s) again were with A12. What a wonderful opportunity for these local young nature lovers to learn about their backyard and how to better care for it.

Our guests this afternoon had a repeat of the morning's activity with beautiful sunshine and calm seas. A tremendous day on the water!

Next available tour:

Sunday, October 04, 2009 at 1:00 pm - Last tour of the season

Friday, October 2, 2009

2009-10-02T23:59:00Z

Photo credit: Lisa Abernethy

From the Wheelhouse:

Just before the tour was ready to leave Telegraph Cove we received a report from Bill and Wendy on Pearce Island that there were transient killer whales heading towards the Cove. A big thanks to Bill and Wendy! When we left the dock we didn't have much success in finding the transients, but just as we were heading to look at humpbacks, Mr. Farquhar from Scotland spotted a blow by Stubbs Island!

Alas it was the transient (marine mammal eating) killer whales. They were somewhat spread out and looked to be foraging. We had a great look and just as we were about to leave .....3 breaches!   It was truly incredible.

Not only did we transients, we were also fortunate to encounter 6 humpback whales who were feeding, breaching, trumpeting and interacting with a Steller sealion. There were lots of tail flukes! We positively ID one as 'Freckles' and another as 'Pultney'.    A tremendous amount of seabirds in the area. Today we counted at least 50 Pacific loons and we saw some fortail petrels.

All in all another wonderful day on the water.

Next available tour:

October 3, 2009 at 1:00 pm
October 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm - Last tour of the season

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

2009-10-01T00:01:00Z

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

From the Wheelhouse:

Humpback vocals! Today we recorded the vocalizations of humpbacks underwater!

The interaction witnessed today and the resulting chance for us ot learn and record observations was amazing. For more than 2.5 hours, Steller sea lions were leaping around 3 humpbacks that we know were "Slash" (BCY0177), "Pultney" (BCZ0297) and "Twister" (no DFO identification number but this is the animal that was twice entangled in prawn trap nets this past spring).

The interaction appeared to be that the sea lions were "provoking "the humpbacks, the humpbacks trying to get away from the sea lions, making loud trumpetting sounds, flailing thier tails and fins and changing directions repeatedly. The left image shows a sea lion leaping over "Twister". Image on the right is also "Twister".

We were able to get the hydrophone in the water and heard that these behaviours were associated with the humpbacks making a great variety of calls. We will be sharing these recordings and our observations with researchers.

It is amazing that in a span of about 7 years, we have gone from rarely seeing humpbacks to now seeing them daily knowing them as individuals which allows us learn from them as we watch them interact. There were at least 5 other humpbacks in the same small area including "Freckles", "Corporal" and "Moonstar".

Next available tour:

Friday, Oct 2, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Saturday, Oct 3, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Sunday, Oct 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm (Last tour of the season)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

2009-09-30T00:24:00Z

Photo credit: Noor-un-nisa Koller

Photo credit: Jackie Hildering

From the Wheelhouse:

Today, we had so much biodiversity and interesting behaviours that the trip has our head naturalist of 11 years on sensory overload. A special thanks to 13 year old Noor-un-nisa Koller for her photo of the A36s. She has been coming to Telegraph Cove each September for the last 7 years!

The intriguing behaviours started with the resident (fish-eating) killer whales. A12 was interacting with the A36s, much tail-slapping and sudden direction changes. A37 ("Plumper") not only spy-hopped out of the water to his midriff, he also breached fully out of the water.

There were at least 5 humpbacks in the area. "Slash" (BCY0177) and "Pultney" (BCZ0297 - first ID photo this season) were together and were trumpeting repeatedly. Again, there was the intriguing behaviour of intense repeated tail-slapping by a humpback. "Ridge" (no DFO ID) was with another animal and repeated slapped the water with much trumpeting going on between these animals as well.

At one point, our passengers had the dilemna of watching the Dall's porpoise hydroplaning around the boat or watching the tail-slapping of the humpback.

Steller sea lions could be counted on for intrigue as well. We re-sighted an animal with an enormous tumour on its face and another animal branded by scientists, the branding suggesting it originated from Oregon.

On the bird front, Captain Jim sighted what may be a gannet (never before seen in our area). We also had a parasitic jaeger attacking a gull.

This really is SUCH a vibrant time of the year.

Next available tour:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Friday, Oct 2, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Saturday, Oct 3, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Sunday, Oct 4, 2009 at 1:00 pm LAST TOUR OF THE SEASON