February! and what a Big(g) month it was. Peppered throughout the sometimes cold, wet or even gloriously sunny winter days, Bigg’s orcas, once known as Transients, travelled through and around the Blackfish Sound/Johnstone Strait area with ease, repeatedly making their presence known either acoustically or visually. This really is their home, especially for the more familiar families who never seem to be far away even though their range is far and wide. They belong to the West Coast population whose numbers have grown increasingly over the years largely because their usual prey of seals, sea lions, porpoise and dolphins remains abundant and healthy on this part of the coast.
This contrasts sharply with the struggles their Northern and Southern Resident counterparts, who have experienced finding sufficient sources of their favourite food, Chinook and Chum salmon, difficult at times. It seems it does not pay to be a specialist! To their credit the Resident orcas had the luxury of honing their preferences over thousands of years without great worry. Only since industrial scale fishing and habitat destruction have their lives become precarious with the subsequent decline in available food.
With increased stability the Bigg’s orcas have prospered and have become a much greater and more constant presence along the coast, all the while gaining confidence in their movements. Before, they would shy away from being in the same space occupied by Residents – no longer!
Other than their habit of eating warm blooded prey and the fact that kills can be violent to anyone watching, they have qualities that can be admired. They usually move about in family groups that, though not as outright stable as the Residents, do endure and can be traced back generations. They nurture and care for their young and support each other much like the Residents. Their competence and coordination while hunting is impressive as is their ability to navigate the complex coastal waterways.
Perhaps, it is the unexpectedness of their movements that makes them less easy to embrace. Each encounter is unpredictable. One never knows when they might “show up” and their presence always evokes a startled response. It is like being surprised when someone suddenly comes around a corner when least expected. It is really hard to get into the rhythm of their lives because so much of what they do is done silently, so different from the chatty Residents.
In the midst of these Bigg’s visits we had just one brief visit from the A5s. They were coming from the east and headed out of the area on 9 February. We knew that all the A5 matrilines, Holly, Fife and Surge’s families, had been travelling the Salish Sea further south in January. But the trail had run cold with no additional sightings. Did this encounter indicate their exit? Will we now have to wait for summer to catch up?
In February, there were no reports about the whereabouts of Simoom and Bend. Hopefully, they are enjoying a sojourn along the North Coast. Last year Bend and her family even slipped into southeast Alaska for a time. Spring, on the coast always brings a stirring and quickening of seasonal activity. It won’t be long before we hear of our Resident orcas and get a feel as to how they fared during the winter.
Other news from the Lab. Cam and Mat continued to look after OrcaLab and keep track of any interesting events. Their daily count of the sea lions hauled out along Hanson Island tallied as many as 35 with an average of around 12. On some days the rocks were abandoned entirely. These numbers are down from a high count of over 200 earlier in the year. They are wary creatures, ever responsive to the threat of danger whether from Bigg’s orcas, land predators or even eagles, who on one occasion swept down in force to feast on a still born pup. Though some mums remain still nursing their young along with a few others, the majority are already moving back up the coast toward their summer rookeries.
Sadly, February was Cam and Mat’s last full month and they will soon be moving on! Cam can take away with her the satisfaction of being the first to see the new baby in the T02Cs (confirmed by a later sighting) on Valentine’s Day.
