Whales

An orphaned orca calf is shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., on Tuesday April 2, 2024. The two year-old orca has been alone in the tidal lagoon near Little Espinosa Inlet since March 23 when its pregnant mother became trapped by the low tide and died on the rocky beach. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Rescuers trying to feed orphan orca stranded in a B.C. lagoon

Lagoon near Zeballos has plenty of fish, observers yet to see calf eating

An orphaned orca calf is shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., on Tuesday April 2, 2024. The two year-old orca has been alone in the tidal lagoon near Little Espinosa Inlet since March 23 when its pregnant mother became trapped by the low tide and died on the rocky beach. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
The orphaned orca calf in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., on Monday April 1, 2024. A stranded killer whale calf is showing signs of regular activity as it breaches every seven to 10 minutes in a lagoon near the northern Vancouver Island village of Zeballos. The two-year-old orca has been alone in the lagoon near Little Espinosa Inlet since March 23 when its mother became trapped by the low tide and died on the rocky beach.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Brave Little Hunter active as push to return orca calf to family continues

Family spotted far to the south as rescuers try to get orphan B.C. killer whale out of lagoon

The orphaned orca calf in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., on Monday April 1, 2024. A stranded killer whale calf is showing signs of regular activity as it breaches every seven to 10 minutes in a lagoon near the northern Vancouver Island village of Zeballos. The two-year-old orca has been alone in the lagoon near Little Espinosa Inlet since March 23 when its mother became trapped by the low tide and died on the rocky beach.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
The tides are expected to be more promising this week in the northern Vancouver Island lagoon where an orphaned orca so far can’t be convinced to leave. A killer whale and its calf are shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C. in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jared Towers, Bay Cetology

Rising tides bring hope for stranded orca calf Brave Little Hunter

Rescuers attempting to coax young whale over sandbar to reunion with pod after mother dies

The tides are expected to be more promising this week in the northern Vancouver Island lagoon where an orphaned orca so far can’t be convinced to leave. A killer whale and its calf are shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C. in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jared Towers, Bay Cetology
A male Bigg’s killer whale breaches in 2023. (Bethany Shimasaki, Western Prince)

Scientists push for orcas to be divided into 2 distinct species

Differences between transient and resident orcas on B.C. coast pronounced

A male Bigg’s killer whale breaches in 2023. (Bethany Shimasaki, Western Prince)
A killer whale and its calf are shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., in a handout photo. A marine scientist says he expects rescue efforts to help coax a stranded killer whale calf from a shallow lagoon off northern Vancouver Island into the open ocean to continue today despite federal Fisheries Department concerns about limited opportunities due to changing tidal flows. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jared Towers, Bay Cetology

Officials consider lifting B.C. orca calf to reunite it with its pod

Rescue efforts continue after mother beaches herself and dies near Zeballos on Vancouver Island

A killer whale and its calf are shown in a lagoon near Zeballos, B.C., in a handout photo. A marine scientist says he expects rescue efforts to help coax a stranded killer whale calf from a shallow lagoon off northern Vancouver Island into the open ocean to continue today despite federal Fisheries Department concerns about limited opportunities due to changing tidal flows. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Jared Towers, Bay Cetology
Community members tried to save a beached mother orca near the village of Zeballos on Vancouver Island on Saturday, March 24, 2024. (Screenshot/Tracy Smith/Facebook)

B.C. First Nation mourns ‘heartbreaking’ death of beached orca mom

Community to hold dinner to gather and connect with culture

  • Mar 27, 2024
Community members tried to save a beached mother orca near the village of Zeballos on Vancouver Island on Saturday, March 24, 2024. (Screenshot/Tracy Smith/Facebook)
An orca died after being beached near Zeballos over the weekend. Photo courtesy Simon John

Beached orca on Vancouver Island was pregnant, DFO necropsy says

Efforts ongoing to reunite calf with pod after mother dies

  • Mar 26, 2024
An orca died after being beached near Zeballos over the weekend. Photo courtesy Simon John
Community members tried to save a beached mother orca near the village of Zeballos on Vancouver Island on Saturday, March 24, 2024. (Screenshot/Tracy Smith/Facebook)

DFO trying to return young whale to pod after beached mother died on Vancouver Island

Whale beached on Saturday, March 23

  • Mar 25, 2024
Community members tried to save a beached mother orca near the village of Zeballos on Vancouver Island on Saturday, March 24, 2024. (Screenshot/Tracy Smith/Facebook)
A British Columbia wildlife protection group says a primary food source of threatened southern resident killer whales is being caught in a commercial fishery that tosses chinook salmon overboard or turns them into compost. A southern resident killer whale swims past a school of salmon near the Fraser River, B.C. in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Keith Holmes, Hakai Institute

‘Appalling waste’: watchdog says 20,000-salmon bycatch could have fed B.C. orcas

Group says commercial fishery threatens food source of southern resident killer whales

A British Columbia wildlife protection group says a primary food source of threatened southern resident killer whales is being caught in a commercial fishery that tosses chinook salmon overboard or turns them into compost. A southern resident killer whale swims past a school of salmon near the Fraser River, B.C. in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Keith Holmes, Hakai Institute
FILE - This September 2015 photo provided by NOAA Fisheries shows an aerial view of adult female southern resident killer whale (J16) swimming with her calf (J50). A new study in Nature shows contaminants are being found inside the bodies of southern resident and Bigg’s killer whales. (NOAA Fisheries/Vancouver Aquarium via AP, File)

Contaminants from oil spills, wildfires ending up inside B.C. whales: study

UBC researchers tested the livers and skeletons of 14 killer whales for PAHs – a first in Canada

FILE - This September 2015 photo provided by NOAA Fisheries shows an aerial view of adult female southern resident killer whale (J16) swimming with her calf (J50). A new study in Nature shows contaminants are being found inside the bodies of southern resident and Bigg’s killer whales. (NOAA Fisheries/Vancouver Aquarium via AP, File)
The BBC’s Planet Earth spent 2 summers filming humpback whales off the B.C. coast for an episode that appeared Dec. 3. Shannon Lough photo

Planet Earth dives deep into Vancouver Island whale poo

Legendary BBC program focuses on whale behaviour and their value as a carbon sink

  • Dec 6, 2023
The BBC’s Planet Earth spent 2 summers filming humpback whales off the B.C. coast for an episode that appeared Dec. 3. Shannon Lough photo
The pontoons were attached and inflated. Photo by Marc Kitteringham/Campbell River Mirror The pontoons were attached and inflated. Photo by Marc Kitteringham/Campbell River Mirror

Beached whale simulation preps Vancouver Island DFO officers for the real thing

Simluation involved 1,500 lb dummy whale, real world conditions to be ‘as realistic as possible’

  • Nov 8, 2023
The pontoons were attached and inflated. Photo by Marc Kitteringham/Campbell River Mirror The pontoons were attached and inflated. Photo by Marc Kitteringham/Campbell River Mirror
Humpback whales roll with pectoral fins above the water, just outside Tenakee Inlet. (Courtesy Photo / Kenneth Gill, gillfoto)

Researchers composing scientific symphony of B.C. whale song data

Whale Sound project collecting information on undersea sound impact from multiple sources

  • Oct 10, 2023
Humpback whales roll with pectoral fins above the water, just outside Tenakee Inlet. (Courtesy Photo / Kenneth Gill, gillfoto)
FILE - A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., March 28, 2018. A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the federal government to enact emergency rules to protect a vanishing species of whale from lethal collisions with large ships. The groups filed their petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Sept. 28 in an effort to protect the North Atlantic right whale. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Environmental groups demand rules to protect rare whales from ship collisions

Fewer than 340 North Atlantic right whales remain

FILE - A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., March 28, 2018. A coalition of environmental groups is calling on the federal government to enact emergency rules to protect a vanishing species of whale from lethal collisions with large ships. The groups filed their petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Sept. 28 in an effort to protect the North Atlantic right whale. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
Holly, who declined to give her last name, with the group Miami Seaquarium Weekly Demos, demonstrates after the recent death of a captive orca, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, outside the Miami Seaquarium in Key Biscayne, Fla. Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, died Friday at the Miami Seaquarium as caregivers prepared to move her from the theme park in the near future. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Mourners gather to remember the last captive southern resident orca

Tokitae, also known as Lolita, died at the Miami Seaquarium on Friday afternoon

Holly, who declined to give her last name, with the group Miami Seaquarium Weekly Demos, demonstrates after the recent death of a captive orca, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, outside the Miami Seaquarium in Key Biscayne, Fla. Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, died Friday at the Miami Seaquarium as caregivers prepared to move her from the theme park in the near future. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
(Perucetus colossus is reconstructed in a costal habitat: Alberto Gennari/Nature via AP)

The heaviest animal ever may be this ancient whale found in the Peruvian desert

There could be a new contender for heaviest animal to ever live.…

(Perucetus colossus is reconstructed in a costal habitat: Alberto Gennari/Nature via AP)
This still image from video provided by Robert Addie shows three humpback whales leaping from the water off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., on Monday, July 24, 2023. Robert Addie, celebrating his birthday on the ocean with his three daughters, captured video of the three humpback whales leaping from the water in near perfect unison. (Robert Addie via AP)

VIDEO: 3 humpbacks jump in unison, in a family birthday surprise

‘It was such an uplifting thing to see, just incredible’

This still image from video provided by Robert Addie shows three humpback whales leaping from the water off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., on Monday, July 24, 2023. Robert Addie, celebrating his birthday on the ocean with his three daughters, captured video of the three humpback whales leaping from the water in near perfect unison. (Robert Addie via AP)
In this photo provided by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, a pod of long-finned pilot whales gather closely near Cheynes Beach east of Albany, Australia, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Nearly 100 pilot whales stranded themselves on the beach in western Australia Tuesday, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them. (DBCA via AP)

Volunteers working to save nearly 100 beached whales in Australia, but more than half have died

Volunteers worked frantically on a second day Wednesday to save dozens of…

In this photo provided by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, a pod of long-finned pilot whales gather closely near Cheynes Beach east of Albany, Australia, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Nearly 100 pilot whales stranded themselves on the beach in western Australia Tuesday, and about half had died by Wednesday morning, despite the efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers to save them. (DBCA via AP)
In this photo provided by Brian Williams, a whale approaches his father, Kevin Williams, while he was paddleboarding in Prince William Sound near Whittier on July 13. Williams survived the close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as a whale surfaced near him.

See how an Alaska paddleboarder escaped a close encounter with a humpback whale

An Alaska man on a paddleboard escaped a close encounter with a…

In this photo provided by Brian Williams, a whale approaches his father, Kevin Williams, while he was paddleboarding in Prince William Sound near Whittier on July 13. Williams survived the close encounter with a humpback whale, not even getting wet during a tense few seconds caught on camera by friends and family as a whale surfaced near him.
This handout photo issued by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) shows pilot whales in North Tolsta, on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, Sunday, July 16, 2023. A pod of 55 pilot whales have died after they were found washed ashore on a beach in Scotland in the worst mass whale stranding in the area, marine experts said Monday. Marine rescuers, the coast guard and police were called to Traigh Mhor beach on the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland after receiving reports that dozens of the mammals were in difficulty there early Sunday. (Cristina McAvoy/BDMLR via AP)

Pod of 55 pilot whales die after being stranded on a beach in Scotland

Whole pod may have followed a female whale onto the beach when she had problems giving birth

This handout photo issued by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) shows pilot whales in North Tolsta, on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, Sunday, July 16, 2023. A pod of 55 pilot whales have died after they were found washed ashore on a beach in Scotland in the worst mass whale stranding in the area, marine experts said Monday. Marine rescuers, the coast guard and police were called to Traigh Mhor beach on the Isle of Lewis in northwest Scotland after receiving reports that dozens of the mammals were in difficulty there early Sunday. (Cristina McAvoy/BDMLR via AP)