It was an incredible sight.
Squamish's Joe Eppele and Wade Laktin, of local company Alta Lake Electric, had an electrifying experience out on Howe Sound Friday.
The pair were out dropping some crab traps mid-morning, Eppele told The Squamish Chief, when they spotted three orcas.
"[We] were just touring around killing a bit of time while we waited to pull the traps," he said, adding they had seen the whales far off, but when they resurfaced, they were "a lot closer than expected and ended up swimming right past us."
The government of Canada warns all boaters and folks on watercraft hoping to catch a glimpse of these amazing creatures, to be whale-wise.
While watching marine mammals, you should never:
- feed them
- swim, dive or interact with them
- move, encircle them or entice them to move
- change directions quickly or park your boat in their path
- approach them when they’re resting
- the whale will look like it’s not moving and will be floating at the surface or near the surface
- separate a mammal from its group or go between it and a calf
- trap a marine mammal or a group either between a vessel and the shore, or between a vessel and other vessels
- approach them if there are already several boats present
- approach head-on or from behind, as this will cut off their movements
- tag or mark them
- touch, feed or disturb an animal, even if it comes up to a wharf or the shoreline
Also, keep your distance if possible.
All marine mammals are subject to the provisions of the Marine Mammal Regulations under the Fisheries Act.
The government recently amended the Marine Mammal Regulations to provide greater protection for marine mammals including Canada’s at-risk whales.
Keeping a minimum distance is the law: Stay 200 metres away from killer whales in B.C. waters and the Pacific Ocean and keeping 400 metres away from all killer whales in southern B.C. coastal waters between Campbell River and just north of Ucluelet from June 1 to May 31.
