The Best Place in the World to SEE Orcas

So that’s what the signs everywhere say, from Vancouver to Victoria and throughout the San Juan Islands. After the bear friendly mountains of Whistler, we headed for the orca friendly waters of British Columbia & Puget Sound. Before we went whale watching in Sidney on Vancouver Island, I stopped in to have a chat with Chris Genovali of Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Maureen Gordon of Maple Leaf Adventures about wildlife and ecotourism in the region. (Stay tuned for a short video of the conversation.)

Our guide for the day was Michael Child of SeaQuest Adventures, recommended by the folks at Raincoast. SeaQuest is a small company operating right next to Sidney’s harbor. A group of 15 of us hopped into their zodiac and sped off towards San Juan Island (WA), where a pod had been spotted. Though it was afternoon on a bright sunny day, we soon entered a fog bank that seemed out of an episode of Scooby Doo. Michael cut the engine in a spot where the orcas were to be passing soon, our zodiac bobbing on the choppy water in the soupy mist.

Soon we were rewarded with the first group of orcas passing by. The fog made clear views and photographs challenging but as we stayed moved with the pod, the fog burned off revealing both San Juan Island just to our east and the beautiful black and white markings of the orcas. We had come across “J Pod”, a group of fish eating orcas that spend all year in this area. The animals treated us to a couple of spy hops and breaches but mostly just kept moving. As the initial whales moved away, Michael got word more were on the way. After a while, it became apparent that we had come across a “super pod” where several pods were traveling together, a relatively rare ritual.

Michael cut the engine and we floated as at least 20 orcas came by in groups of two and three. His passion and respect for these animals was clear as he shared their natural history, threats, and research. These animals face two main challenges from people, toxins and the loss of food. These orcas live primarily off of salmon, whose numbers have dropped dramatically over the past century as dams and fishing have proliferated. Much of the toxins from the major cities in the region accumulate in these waters and move their way up the food chain in a process called “bioaccumulation” where the top predators like orcas end up with large amounts of PCB’s and other nasty chemicals that make breeding more difficult.

Due to new whale watching regulations, we had to keep at least 200 meters from the killer whales, which Michael was careful to respect. While there may be dozens of boats in the water at a time watching the whales, at least the commercial boats we saw that day were generally respectful and not approaching too close or blocking their path. The one boat we saw not following regulation was a private boat that was speeding towards the pod, only stopping only a short distance in front of the group.

The new regulations are a local controversy with whale watching operations claiming that their activities have minimal impact on the whales while some local groups claim they are a major threat to the survival of the orcas. The SoundWatch Boater Education Program is an effort by the Whale Museum to minimize these impacts by monitoring and educating both commercial boats as well as private ones. Their Be Whale Wise voluntary guidelines have been adopted by the majority of both Canadian and US commercial boats. In 2010, of the more than 1,000 incidents recorded, more than 60% were private boats and fewer than 15% were commercial whale watch operators. Regardless, we hope all whale watching boats take every possible measure to reduce the noise and pollution of their engines and manage their boats to reduce impacts on the whales.

Whale watching in this region is part of its life blood; orcas adorn flags, walls, shirts, and just about everything else you can put a picture on. According to SoundWatch, more than 500,000 people go whale watching in this region every year. More than 500 people directly survive from taking people out and thousands more indirectly benefit from the visitors. If anything were to happen to wipe these animals out, it would impact many communities. Hopefully this powerful constituency will actively support efforts to keep the orcas safe from looming threats like a proposal to allow huge oil tankers to start coming through the area.

Learn more:
-Orca Facts & Conservation Tours

Bear & Eco-Friendly Whistler

Whistler is the active sport capital of British Columbia’s mountains. While its an expensive playground for the rich, there is a lot family’s on a budget can do. The growth of the town is obvious; while the Olympics are a wonderful event, we can’t close our eyes to the loss of habitat that happens with the accompanying construction boom. Despite that growth, Whistler is perhaps the most eco-friendly town I’ve ever visited (and I live outside Portland OR). The buses are powered by fuel cells, recycling containers outnumber trash cans, and rooftop gardens are everywhere.

Perhaps the town’s greatest asset (in the summer at least) is its spectacular system of bike trails. With trails for every age and ability, one can hop on a bike and get anywhere quickly. Yesterday, while enjoying these trails, we came twice came across black bears. Near Lost Lake, a couple of bikers spotted a bear moving across the hillside above, about 50 feet away. Another family pulled up and the kids immediately started yelling and the mom panicked and started to pull the family away. Once they realized they were out of danger, they started joking about giving it a chocolate bar. (Note, this is not the bear we saw at right, I'll post pictures next week on our Facebook page).

This may have been the only family not to come across the most intensive bear education campaign I’ve ever seen. Brochures, signs, and more showed people how to act around these beautiful creatures. Every trash can was bear proofed. According to one resident, the bears are a lot more frequent near town this year, the result of a cool spring that equals less food at high altitudes. Both bears were obviously used to humans, not paying any attention to the excited humans around them. This extensive effort to live in coexistence with the bears is encouraging; Whistler is a model for being both bear-friendly and eco-friendly.

Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting with our new partners at Raincoast Conservation Foundation who are pioneers at bear conservation, as well as our friends at Maple Leaf Adventures. Stay tuned for another post soon!

Bear Watching Tips: (from the Get Bear Smart Society)

-To avoid surprising a bear, make your presence known by talking or making noise.

-Keep dogs on a leash and under control.

-If you come across a bear, remain calm and detour around it if possible, do not approach it.

-If you suddenly encounter a black bear at close range, stand your ground facing the bear. Identify yourself as human by talking in a calm voice. Back away slowly and never run.

-Carry a bear spray as a precaution.

Learn more about bears and bear watching tours at SEEtheWILD.org.

Light, Motion, Mind, and Ocean

What is it about the way the ocean moves, reflects, glimmers and glows that mesmerizes and transfixes us and is so difficult to capture, put in a box, and share?

Earlier this summer I gathered a group of leading neuroscientists, ocean explorers, advocates, communicators and creative people together in a room at the California Academy of Sciences to begin to answer this question, and many others. We called the amalgamation of thinkers BLUEMIND and set out to explore the science of the relationship between the human brain and the ocean.

Among the topics explored were all of the senses relative to the sea, why the ocean is sexy, why we prefer "ocean views" to the tune of trillions of dollars and how addiction can both be a force for ocean destruction and restoration. Providing a glimmer of hope and delivering the closing keynote was Dr. Michael Merzenich, a pioneer in the field of neural plasticity, who described the brain's fantastic capacity for change.

A couple of months have passed since the the summit, ample time to reflect and respond. In that time I've been to Indonesia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala. And my daughter and I took a slow walk along twelve miles of our most local ocean, from Pescadero to Año Nuevo, California.

After all that intellectual stimulation and travel I keep coming back to the special quality of the light that passes through and/or reflects off of the ocean before it passes through my eyes. There's something unique about what it does in there--the impulses and images it sends to my visual cortex are some of my favorites. I really miss them when I don't have them--there's no substitute on land or screen. And I'm already making the next plan to return, even before the expedition at hand is over.

Like many others, I have pointed my cameras at that light over and over again. All over the planet. On top of the ocean, under the ocean and along the ocean. Better photographers and videographers than I have produced visual masterpieces telling important stories about our blue planet when their lenses have been artfully employed to capture the magical light and motion of the sea.

And still the four by six foot whale portraits, the million dollar feature ocean films, the latest surf flick and the short videos made on my iPhone of my daughter along the SLOWCOAST are poor substitutes for the real thing. They just don't take us there like the light of the roiling sea does.

Yet, we will always try to capture the light and the motion--try to put the ocean in a box--so we can share those inspiring moments with other minds. As futile as it may be, even with gigapixels, seven story high screens and latest underwater housings

I know I'll keep returning to the ocean with my lights, camera and wetsuit to make more memories. And I'll always keep trying, and failing, to bring home that special light in a box.

-Wallace J. Nichols