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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
We only had
one night in Telegraph Cove, as they were all booked up for the second night,
so we stayed in nearby Port McNeill, which was going to be our next
destination, and was only a thirty-minute drive away. But we had to come back
in the morning, as we had another trip booked, this time with Stubbs Island
Whale Watching.
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| Fin whale skeleton, Telegraph Cove |
We had
arrived a bit early, and used the spare time to take a look around the Whale
Interpretative Centre. As I mentioned before, it is small, but it is
interesting, and has lots of information about how they identify the different
orca pods in the region, as well as some skeletons of whales and other sea
mammals.
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| Sea otter skeleton, Telegraph Cove |
In all
honesty, we weren’t feeling as enthusiastic for this trip as we might have
been. The boat is a bit bigger than yesterday's, with more people on it, and we had had such good
sightings of orcas yesterday, that we didn’t really think that this trip would
match up.
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| Jellyfish, Telegraph Cove |
Not that
there was anything wrong with the trip. We set off straight away to find the
orca pod that was in the area. It took a while, as they were quite a way out,
but when we arrived it was a large pod, and they allowed us to get nice and
close, with a couple of them coming right up around us briefly. There was a zodiac nearby, and the orcas
treated them to a really close encounter, which would have been great for them
being so low in the water.
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
It is lovely
to see the orcas all around, and so close by, but sadly they weren’t feeling
playful today, so we didn’t really get any spy hops, and no breaches, which is
a bit of a shame. It was still great, it’s just that we were spoiled yesterday.
Our guides
today did give us a bit more information about the orcas and their situation,
which was both interesting and worrying. They showed us the results of some
tests that they ran to check on the level of microplastics that the orcas are
absorbing into their bodies.
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
The microplastics,
about the size of coffee grains, are ingested by everything from plankton to orcas,
and as well as damaging the creatures internally, they can also make them think
that they are not hungry, which can cause them to starve. Of course, because the
orcas eat the smaller marine life, they ingest the microplastics in their
bodies too.
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| Microplastic pollution |
The bottles
in the picture show a representation of the levels that they found. The smallest
amount is the acceptable level. The middle amount is the level that is found in
the orcas in this area, at the northern end of Vancouver Island, where the
human population density and pollutants are lower. The largest amount is what
they found in orcas at the southern end of the island, closer to Victoria and
Vancouver.
The levels
are quite concerning, and they seem to be reflected in the life expectancy of
the orcas. The females are living to around 70-80 years old, but the males are
only surviving to about half that age. The experts believe that the pollutants
are the cause of the shorter lifespan in males, and that the reasons that the
females are no affected, is that they unwittingly pass on the pollutants to
their calves when they give birth.
It is sad to
see the damage that we are doing to the habitat of these lovely creatures, and
indeed that we may still be endangering their existence. We had been feeling a little awkward about keep insisting on not being given a straw in a drink, but this just renewed our resolve to keep on with that, and feeling even more determined to minimise our use of all plastics.
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| Eagle, Telegraph Cove |
After
watching the orcas for a while, we set off in search of other creatures, and
came across a big flock of birds feeding on the water, including a couple of
eagles, which we watched for a while.
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| Humpback, Telegraph Cove |
Our next
encounter was with a humpback, which hovered on the surface briefly before
giving us a nice tail fluke as it dived back down again.
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| Humpback, Telegraph Cove |
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| Squiggle the Humpback, Telegraph Cove |
After that, the
guides took us over to an area where they had spotted a second humpback diving.
They positioned the boat a little way from where they thought it would emerge,
and we all gazed expectantly off into the distance, waiting for it.
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| Squiggle the Humpback, Telegraph Cove |
Then, all
of a sudden, it appeared, not off in the distance, but literally right next to
us.
She was so
close, that we actually felt her bump the boat. Needless to say, we were
thrilled to have her pop up so close.
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| Squiggle the Humpback, Telegraph Cove |
She hovered
for a moment, presumably thinking “Bugger, where did that lump of metal come
from?”, and then ducked down and passed under the boat, popping up on the other
side. It stayed on the surface briefly, giving us an excellent view of her
slightly mangled dorsal fin that had led to her being named Squiggle, and then
flicked up her tail and dived down.
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| Bald eagle, Telegraph Cove |
Of course,
with having the zoom lense attached to the camera, it wasn’t easy to get her
properly into the frame for photos, but that wasn’t really the point. It was
great to see her so very close. In any case, we did better than the
professional photographer on board, who had one of the huge fixed zoom lenses;
he had no chance of taking any pictures that close up. Like us though, he was
just excited to have seen her there.
We finished
off the day with a bald eagle that was drying itself out on some rocks.
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| Telegraph Cove |
In the end,
what had started out as a nice, but unremarkable trip, became an unforgettable one,
simply due to that one close encounter with a humpback called Squiggle. And
that is the nature of wildlife watching.
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Orcas, Telegraph Cove |
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| Telegraph Cove |
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| Bald eagle, Telegraph Cove |
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| Telegraph Cove |
