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I finally managed to get out on the water and find some Orca (Orcinus orca) last week and what a great day it was.  This pod (A30s) were going East quite slowly and then suddenly changed direction and turned towards us.  They were neither going very deep or barely breaking the surface just resting or ‘logging’ near the surface of Johnstone Strait.  As one half of their brain sleeps the other half keeps them moving and breathing, otherwise they would drown.  Also known as killer whales and locally as ‘blackfish’, they are always a special sight to see on the BC coast – they bring smiles and excitement to all who see them.  I’ll include some more over the coming months, whilst others can be seen here in the whale gallery.

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This coastal BC scenic shows a transient orca in the foreground and the northern mountains of Vancouver Island in the background.  The shot was taken amongst the Plumper Group of islands towards the northern end of Johnstone Strait and this transient was one of a pod of five or six searching along the inshore areas for food.  Transients are stealthy hunters for prey, unlike the fish eating resident orca who use their ‘sonar’ to search out fish, this sub-species are very quiet when looking for lunch.  I have even seen them use boats as decoys to try and lure unsuspecting sea-lions into the water and then hunt them with the pod split to approach from two different directions.  This scenic is one of two canvas giclees I have on display at the Pearl Ellis Gallery in Comox at the moment, so if you’re in the area please do stop in and have a look and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!   More orca can be seen here: Whale Gallery

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Here on the BC coast we have three sub-species of orca (Orcinus orca) or to some; killer whale and I’m very fortunate to have seen all three.  The least known about, the ‘off-shores’, as their name suggests spends the majority of their time off the BC coast, believed to travel between Alaska and Mexico.  Next we have the ‘meat’ eating orca, the transients, these are the guys that feed on seals, seal-lions, porpoise, baby whales etc. and these will hunt almost silently in pods searching out unsuspecting prey swimming in the water.  The final group are probably the most known about and photographed group of orca in the world, they are the resident orca, the fish eating orca.  We have two distinct groups, the southern and northern residents who seem to keep to their geographical boundaries around the coast quite well.  Here we see a group of northern residents, believed to be part of A5 pod.  The resident orca return to the BC coast in numbers from late June (southern) and July (northern) onwards and have been known to stay around until November if there is food to be found.