Vancouver

The last few days I have had a couple of meetings in British Columbia. Firstly I met with Caitlin Birdsall from Vancouver Aquarium’s BC Cetacean Sighting Network, and yesterday I met with Mike Derry from FAS Seafood Producers, who organised for me to meet with marine mammal experts, John Ford and Graeme Ellis from the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

Both meetings gave me an insight into depredation in BC, which is not as big of an issue here as it is in Alaska, though is still definately happening. More so by Killer Whales than Sperm Whales though, with also some by certain types of seals.

There are 3 types of Killer Whale here in BC – resident, transient and offshore. They believe that depredation is mostly occurring from Resident Killer Whales when the Chinook Salmon are not readily available, as their natural diet is almost exclusively Salmon (72% of this being Chinook Salmon). When they are not available they look for the next best thing…

The depredation is occurring in the Sablefish and Halibut longline fisheries in northern BC as well as recreational angling in southern BC. At this point in time there is not a lot of mitigation going on, mainly just the advice of haul the hear and get out of the area, which I think is a very important thing to do – not giving the whales the chance to practice this developed skill.

Got speaking further with John Ford regarding passive acoustic listening for Killer Whale whistles and Sperm Whale clicks with long term hydrophones – potentially a first step for us in understanding when and where these whales visit our Heard Island fishery?

Thoroughly enjoyed my time here in BC and thanks to Caitlin, John and Graeme for meeting me, and especially Mike for helping me get in touch with these people and driving me up to Nanaimo.

Taking another short break from Toothfish Tales and will be back in a couple of weeks with more news from San Diego, the last stop on my Nuffield trip!