A Season To Celebrate: Northern Great Bear - Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary 2019

A grizzly in spring grazing on sedge grass. Photo: N Shearar

2019: A Season to Celebrate

Northern Great Bear - Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary

British Columbia's north coast is one of those places where we hope to raise the sails. With a good wind, we make way out of the port of Prince Rupert to a remote estuary called the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary. Only just a few vessels are permitted to venture where we go which makes visiting this off the map place so special.

Transient (Biggs) Orca hunting a Steller sea lion. Photo: E Boyle

The outer Islands always provide superb opportunities to explore with colourful spring flowers, nesting kittiwakes and a massive Steller sea lion haul out monitored by a few dozing "beach masters". These males appear to be as big as Volkswagen vans!. Transient (Bigg's) orcas patrolled the waters for inquisitive, juvenile sea lions, who found cover in between our towed zodiacs, hoping they would be forgotten by those apex predators of the sea.

Dr Barrie Gilbert

Late May/ June is a unique time to visit. It is mating season for this important population of grizzlies. The large males tend to spend their time upriver, foraging away from human contact. Now they beeline it for the estuary to find the females, some still with cubs. Bear behaviorist, Dr. Barrie Gilbert, provided our guests with all the answers (and punchlines) for an area he knows so well. 

The dynamic suddenly changes with the arrival of the large male grizzly, from foraging and quietly to "the pursuit" - and the females are not always willing participants. Captain Neil captured one such occasion.

"The pursuit" lasted for more than 2 hours up a mountain and back. Photo: N Shearar

Crew noted "lots of bears" and "lots of mating" this year – a good indicator that we will be in for more incredible bear viewing Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary will in 2020...  ;)

Northern Great bear/ Khutzeymateen expeditions take place in late May/ June. Check out the sample Itinerary for more information on this unique wildlife expedition. BOOK NOW!

www.bluewateradventures.ca

Bubble-Net Feeding in the Great Bear Rainforest!

A few guests onboard the Island Odyssey this week were lucky enough to see a group of Humpback Whales bubble-net feeding! This is very rare to see in the area, as we usually talk about this in Alaskan waters. Captain Randy Burke called into the office to chat about the experience.

Amazing Sightings in Haida Gwaii!

The 4 crew and 12 guests onboard the Island Roamer right now in the Queen Charlotte Islands had a great wildlife show yesterday. They spotted two Sperm whales, which were both approximately 40 feet long. The whales were located roughly about 10 miles off the Islands in the open Pacific waters. What an experience! To top it off, they also saw 45 black-footed Albatross the same day. We are looking forward to seeing the pictures and the videos when they get back from their trip.

Getting to Know Humpbacks

By Bruce Whittington, Bluewater Naturalist

Taxis, buses, ferries, a plane ride or two — it’s not easy to get to Haida Gwaii for a trip with Bluewater Adventures. But the effort seems to vanish once we are underway. Each time I return, I am reminded of why I love this place: it’s the abundance of life here.

Within the national park reserve, vast forests stand unchanged by industry. The Haida people continue in their ancient relationship to this land. In May, thousands of tiny Ancient Murrelet chicks make their midnight dashes to the sea, in search of their parents whom they know only by the sound of their voices.

Perhaps the most visible of Haida Gwaii’s residents are its Humpback Whales. Until the 1940s, these gentle leviathans were hauled ashore at Rose Harbour, and rendered into oil and meal. The population was reduced to a fraction of its historical size. Today, though, the Humpbacks have returned in a way that is at once encouraging and exhilarating.

They come from Hawaii, where they spend the winters mating, and giving birth. But they do not feed there. In the spring, they migrate to the North Pacific, with its teeming marine food chain. The 40-tonne whales feed largely on krill, tiny animals that may be less than two centimeters in length.

On a typical Bluewater cruise, we see whales daily. Some are identified only by their distant blows, while others feed intently within easy photo range of the boat. It’s not unusual to see 20 or more whales in a given area.

How many whales are there? Are we seeing the same whales over and over? I’ve been photographing the whales in the years I’ve been a naturalist for Bluewater, and it’s fascinating to see how different these animals can be.

Researchers are identifying Humpback Whales by the pattern on the underside and trailing edge of their broad tail flukes. They range from black through mostly white, with an amazing variety of patterns in between.

Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans hosts a web site with photos of over 1,000 Humpbacks known to occur in British Columbia waters. They are grouped according to the amount of white in their flukes:
http://www-sci.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sa/cetacean/humpbackwhale/default_e.htm

Using this site, I’ve identified at least eight whales in my photos. It’s exciting to know that “my” whales have been seen before. But more exciting was a whale photographed in 2008 that appeared again in my photos from 2009! The whale’s number is BCZ0273, and here are the photos. You can see that the pattern on the tail is the same a year later. (The yellow markings are algae growth, and they do change over time.)

It shouldn’t surprise me to see the same whales returning, but it is a thrill just the same. It gives me hope that perhaps this diverse and wild landscape will continue sustain the Humpback Whales and all the other species that call it home.

Bruce Whittington, Naturalist