Rare Endangered Whales Observed off BC's Coast

A mother and calf sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) (Christin Khan, NOAA /NEFSC)

Being Canadian and a marine ecologist this blog post is pretty exciting for myself. When I was a child growing I received a book on baleen and toothed whales when I visited Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC. That ignited a fire in me and on that day I wanted to become a whale trainer. Fast-forward 25 years I don’t work with marine mammals let alone training them, however ended up in the marine realm.

A handful of Canadian Biologists and Coast Guard Members were recently lucky enough to see some very rare whales off British Columbia’s coast. In July the team was completing a 10-week survey trying to count, or estimate, all marine mammals populations in Canada's Pacific. The survey is the first of its kind in the Pacific ever conducted by the federal government. Using floating sonar devices to listen for whale calls under the water, "We started hearing those sounds that sounded very similar to what sei whales were recorded doing elsewhere. We started hearing them more and more and that led us to finding them and seeing them for the first time many years", says Thomas Doniol-Valcroze, a research biologist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis, one of the fastest marine mammals in the world (50 mph in short sprints) and the third largest closely behind Blue and Fin whales. At one point there were more than 600,000 Sei whales in the North Pacific, but populations crashed following targeting by whalers. In fact, there had not been a sighting in any Canadian waters since before whaling was banned in the 1960’s. The scarcity resulting in Sei whales being listed as endangered in Canada’s Species at risk act.

While listening the team found a pod of whales and among them five whales which they identified as Sei. We still know very little about Sei whales in Canadian waters. They have a largely unknown geographic distribution and their wintering grounds have not yet been identified.

Doniol-Valcroze says result of the survey will not be published for a year, but he added it was quite successful. Not only did they observe Sei whales, but also found high than anticipated numbers of harbor porpoises. After countless stories about plastics, climate change and overfishing finally some positive news coming the marine world making it to my blog!!!!