Boaters on Howe Sound were surprised to see killer whales swimming in the waters off Watts Point just south of Squamish last week.
Scott Shaw-MacLaren of the Squamish Coast Guard Auxiliary said he was out on a training mission last Wednesday (March 23) with three other volunteers when they spotted two orcas near Darrell Bay in Howe Sound.
He said at first they thought the animals were porpoises but once they got closer they realized they had come across two orcas.
"We spotted them about a kilometre off," Shaw-MacLaren said. "We got about 500 metres away and we watched them for about five minutes."
He said they spotted the whales at about 7:30 p.m.
Shaw-MacLaren, a member of the Squamish Yacht Club, said the sighting was of interest to the group because they understood that killer whales were common in Howe Sound more than 20 years ago.
"It looked like it might have been a female and a juvenile," said Shaw-MacLaren. "Neither of them had the big dorsal fins the males have."
Caitlin Birdsall, a whale researcher who works at the Vancouver Aquarium, said orcas are occasionally reported at the south end of Howe Sound.
"It is exciting to see them, especially so far up the sound towards places like Squamish," said Birdsall.
She said two orca sightings were reported by phone to the B.C. Cetacean Sightings network Wednesday evening and both came from the south end of Howe Sound. Both reports indicated the whales were travelling up Howe Sound, Birdsall said.
"We often get more reports sort of around Bowen Island and the mouth of Howe Sound," she said.
One of the reports Wednesday evening, according to Birdsall, indicated three whales were seen and the other witness reported seeing at least five killer whales.
Birdsall said there are two types of orcas in B.C. waters: residents and transients. The resident whales feed on salmon and the transient whales feed on mammals. Birdsall speculated that the whales spotted near Squamish may have been transients and she said photos of the orcas would confirm the species as whale researchers have catalogued all the resident killer whales in B.C.
"There's been lots of interesting sightings in Howe Sound over the last little while," she said. "There was the grey whale in May. We've had dolphins consistently in Howe Sound for the last year coming in and out of the area."
Birdsall said her organization will happily take more reports of killer whale sightings in Howe Sound. She requested that enthusiasts respect the animals.
"We do encourage people, though, that if they are on the water and they do see killer whales anywhere on the coast, to remember that we do have the Be Whale Wise guidelines," she said.
The guidelines recommend keeping at least 100 metres away from whales and suggest ways to pass whales without disturbing the animals.
For more information on how to go about reporting killer whale sightings, surf to http://www.wildwhales.org.
