qathet resident Debra Dunham was walking in the Willingdon Beach area around 6:30 am this morning, Wednesday, June 25, when she said she spotted a pod of dolphins swimming and diving for about an hour in the bay close to the shore.
While capturing a video of the pod, Dunham asked out loud, "did anyone else see them?"
Dunam told the Peak she watched them for about an hour and said there was no one else around.
"This is another thing that makes this place special," said Dunham. "They were either feeding or mating; not sure which."
The video shows a number of dolphins swimming and possibly feeding quite close to the shoreline at Willingdon Beach.
At this time of year in qathet and other coastal regions, there is usually an uptick of dolphin, humpback and orca sightings.
"Humpback whale breaching and a number of humpbacks have been observed breaching over the past few weeks," reported Wild Ocean Whale Society (WOWs) volunteer Ivan Ng on the WOWs website. "Other species that breach are orca and some dolphins. There were many sightings of transient orca; some were observed in Burrard Inlet in Vancouver and many others were seen in upper Georgia Strait and adjacent waterways."
Ng reported that there have been sightings of Pacific white-sided dolphins as well.
"Some of the dolphins were in small pods of 10 individuals while other dolphins travelled in larger pods with up to 50 to 70 individuals," reported Ng.
Boats and other watercraft, such as kayaks must remain at least 400-metres away from orca and at least 100-metres away from other species. See the full government regulation in the paragraph below.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada issued the following statement about watching orca in the wild: "Vessels must stay 400 metres away and may not position a vessel in the path of killer whales in southern BC coastal waters between Campbell River and just north of Ucluelet until May 31, 2026."
For all other areas of BC outside of the area indicated above, a minimum distance of 200 metres must be maintained when viewing orca or while viewing any cetaceans that are resting or with a calf. When viewing whales, dolphins and porpoises under other circumstances not described above, a minimum distance of 100 metres must be kept.
A great resource for up to date Canadian or US regulations: Be Whale Wise Guidelines.
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