A graph showing cetacean sightings in Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound from 2001-2018
Here in Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound, the return of cetaceans over the past 20 years has been truly incredible. Having been hunted to extirpation from this part of the world in the early 1900s, a single Humpback Whale made a stunning return to our inlet in 2001. Along with the Humpbacks came hope of a renewed and recovered inlet, washed free of the massive pollution problems caused by a century of logging, wood processing and mining.
The explosion happened in earnest in 2010 when Pacific Whitesided Dolphins returned to Howe Sound by the hundreds. The number of sightings in the above graph doesn’t catch the number of dolphins. There were pods numbering in the hundreds at times swimming in unison around the Sound, riding the bow waves of water taxis and ferries. They were here becasue the herring had returned to the inlet, and anchovies had joined them having moved north from California due to warmer waters.
The dolphins didn’t last long becasue hot on the heels of them came irruptions of sea lions and seal populations and that attracted the Biggs Killer Whales, transient Orcas that eat marine mammals. They are here to stay and in recent years have been joined by occasional visits from the Northern Resident Killer Whales who have forayed south in search of fish to eat.
Since 2018 when this graph ends, the humpback population has exploded and there are now upwards of 60 calves and 400 adults that make their summer feeding homes in the Salish Sea, some spending lots of their time in and around Howe Sound. These numbers are especially encouraging because calves that are raised in a place tend to stay there and later breed. The Humpbacks have returned. It will be amazing the tallies for the last six years.
It is getting to the point where every time I’m on the ferry I take my binoculars and scan for whales. I see whales probably 10-15% of the time, and in every month. Spomtimes the presence of whale watching boats gives them away, other times I just scan the sea and catch a blow or a fin. Just the other day I set up a hammock on the south shore of our island and spent the afternoon reading and watching a pod of four orcas travel below the bluffs.
It’s hard to describe the effect that the return of the whales has had on our Island and on the communities of Howe Sound. Multiple Facebook groups have popped up to share sights and Ocean Wise has set up a ground-based Whale Blitz which concludes tomorrow. Folks are being encouraged to get out and look for whales, contribute to the science and learn how to identify different species and how to keep them safe.
The whales have been the central figures in the story of how we established the Átl’?a7tsem / Howe Sound Biosphere Region in 2021 and they will continue to hold us accountable as we both resist and shape the industrial, commercial and development forces that are at work next to Canada’s third biggest urban area.
