April has been awesome so far!!

April has been epic on the water so far with Killer Whale sightings almost on every trip!! The main Orca ecotype we have been interacting with the most are the Bigg's (transient) Orca, which are your marine mammal eating Orca.  Roughly, here on the west coast there is a population of about 300 Bigg's Orca, which typically are considered to have a range from south east Alaska to all the way down to the California coast.  Recently, some researches have concluded that the population of the Bigg's Orca is growing at a steady rate of 5% a year, which is about 15 new orca every year! One belief  for the growth of the population could is due to the increasing population of harbour seals on the west coast, as they are a food source for that Orca ecotype, which basically correlates to the theory of more food = more predators.

However, we were blessed with the recent return of K Pod (Southern Resident Orca), which has 20 Orca in that pod.  They looked very healthy and the males looked bigger than last year, which is fantastic as they must have had a great winter season for food availability.  All we are waiting for now are the other two pods - J & L to return, and hopefully with a few new calves too - we will just have to wait and see!!  This season is going to be a real fun one, and i can't wait for the season to begin.  Even though, as of now we are running twice daily @10am & 2:30pm to go searching for our beloved Orca and the rest of the amazing wildlife that you find on this unique coast.  Call us, email us or come down to the office and see what we are seeing that day & to come out for a memorable west coast adventure!

Photo credit to Eve Jourdain