Looking across the foreshore of Campania Island at the many whale spouts hanging in the air, I am reminded of how our conservation work is guided by field seasons - fall’s great salmon migration, cold and clear wintertime diving, spring herring spawn and, come summer, it is all about cetaceans.
At no other time of the year are there so many different species of whales on our coast. Northern resident killer whales, the fish-eaters, are coming together to form superpods. On some days we are witnessing more than fifty individuals following the salmon migration into the mainland fjords of the Great Bear Rainforest. The transient killer whales, the marine-mammal eaters, are forever travelling between seal and sea lion haul-outs, teaching the young how to hunt (0:59). Stealth and surprise are their primary hunting tools. These whales can live for almost a century - they cannot afford to lose an eye to wary prey.
