Some of the mystery surrounding the Sunshine Coast's visiting grey whale is being unveiled, thanks to the monitoring and record-keeping efforts of the Sargeant Bay Society.
The Society, which strives to protect the natural habitat of Sargeant Bay to the west of Sechelt, has previously monitored other types of wildlife in Sargeant Bay Provincial Park.
Society secretary Joop Burgerjon said the whale, which was first reported in the Strait of Georgia in May and first reported in Sargeant Bay in July, was something new for the organization.
"We never had grey whales or whales [generally] in Sargeant, and now, about four times, we had the whale in there and it was feeding and it was a sight and everybody was very excited about it," he said.
As a result, the society has decided to track the grey whale's movements until it leaves the Coast - presumably later this summer, and presumably to continue its journey from the calving lagoons of Baja, Mexico back to the North Pacific.
The Society has put together a graph showing the reported movements of the whale - which Burgerjon believes to be approximately 16 metres long - since May.
"It seems to be moving wildly about," he said. "It has been seen between Bonniebrook Beach and Halfmoon Bay. It's a limited stretch, but one day it's in Halfmoon Bay and the next it's in Roberts Creek."
As to whether there could be more than one whale, Burgerjon said he believes that isn't the case.
"There have been rumours there are young ones, but I think these are just rumours," he said, saying that the reports the Society has received have indicated only one adult whale. "There have also been rumours that there's more than one. This monitoring will reveal whether there's more than one, but I doubt it."
Burgerjon said that while the Society's monitoring can pinpoint the whale's movement and confirm how many animals are involved, there are still other questions to be answered. He says he wonders, for example, what impact the bottom feeding whale is having on local prawn populations and whether it's having problems with a multitude of local crab traps.
To aid its research, the Society is inviting anyone who sees the whale to contact the organization at [email protected] to report the location, date and time of day of the sighting.
