This winter an abundance of whale sightings have been reported in the qathet region, including a mother northern resident orca with her new calf.
Photographer Michelle Pennell first spotted the pod from her home on Marine Avenue on February 29, and followed them south to Grief Point, where she was able to take photos from the beach of the female orca identified as A42, with her calf.
Pennell said she and other whale watchers have seen different resident and transient orca pods in the past few months in the waters around qathet, including Malaspina Strait.
According to Whales and Dolphins BC (WOWs): "Baby orca are born with a colour different from adult orca. Instead of white patches, they have patches of light brown and as they get older, the patches become white."
WOWs indicated on its website that orca calves can be between two metres to 2.5 meters long and have a mass of at least 200 kilograms at birth.
"Orca remain and travel with their mothers for the majority of their lives and some pods contain multiple generations of orca with the oldest member being a female leading the pod," stated Ivan Ng on WOWs’ website.
When looking out to the ocean in qathet, folks can often see the black and white orcas display a variety of behaviours at the surface, such as hunting, breaching, tail slapping and spy-hopping.
To see a live map of whale sightings and reports go to Wild Ocean Whale sightings map.
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