Record Whales Visits in the Salish Sea in 2022

BY MARIANNE SCOTT

Humpbacks also continued their comeback after being nearly hunted to extinction for their valuable oil. The 1986 ban on commercial whaling has allowed for the humpbacks’ resurgence. Researchers with the Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration just announced in a news release that “396 individual humpback whales were photographed in the Salish Sea over the course of the 2022 season, the highest number documented in a single year for at least the past century. It appears that the food supply is plentiful helping to sustain these massive mammals.” The Collaboration also reported that of the whales photographed last year, most of them have returned repeatedly to the Salish Sea, thus showing they have clear preferences for where they choose to feed.

The news isn’t that good for the northern and southern resident orcas. The three northern clans number around 250, but the southern families who stay around south Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the San Juans only number 70. They are endangered because their main diet of chinook, chum and coho salmon has declined, and the region’s heavy traffic and pollution also decrease their ability to breed and survive.

Yachties may well see increased numbers of different whales this year. But be warned. Washington law requires vessels to give southern resident orcas (the most endangered community) at least 300 yards (275 metres) of space. Boaters are also required to be at least 400 yards (365 metres) out of their path, or behind them.

For British Columbia, the federal Fisheries Act stipulates boaters must keep 100 metres away from all whales, dolphins and porpoises or 200 metres away if they are resting or with a calf. In addition, give a scope of 200 metres to killer whales. For the waters from Campbell River south to Ucluelet, the rules are even stricter: you must keep 400 metres away from all killer whales. And it’s not just a warning. A Prince Rupert diver who got way too close by trying to swim with orcas was fined $12,000.

IF I WERE asked to describe these 23 short stories in one word, it would be eclectic.

(And some of these short stories are very short indeed, like 1.5 pages). The book has been described as highlighting the particular magic of the West Coast, but while the stories are intrinsically BC, with many of them having a strong sense of place, it’s mostly not magic that’s highlighted.

We meet street people living rough in the bush (Delta Charlie); we meet tired middle-aged housewives in bars (Gelignite); we meet a teenaged girl in a small town (Buses come, buses go); we meet the author himself in a helicopter to hell (Into the Silverthrone Caldera) and as a firefighter (All the Bears Sing). I love the mix of people and places and I like that I never really know what Macy is going to write next. Mixed in