Monday, April 5, 2010 Transient Killer Whales, Elephant Seals, Steller Sea Lions & Beached Grey Whale
As always, Five Star Whale Watching headed out to search for as wide a variety of marine wildlife as possible. Showing our passengers the tremendous range in species and size of creatures encountered by those of us who are fortunate enough to live here allows us to explain that none of this would be possible without a vibrant, diverse ecosystem.
The health of that ecosystem supports prey of every size (From Krill & Shrimp to Humpback calves) and that in turn attracts predators ranging from herring to salmon, seals to seal lions & elephant seals, porpoise to whales.
The Apex Predator, the top of the Food Chain in all Oceans, is the Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whale. And Five Star Whale Watching's passengers saw some today!
Here are pictures of just some of what we saw today, amid the turbulent waters as a Southeast wind and flood tide hitting underwater sea mounts created upwelling that brought even more oxygen, food and nutrients to the surface. It is nice to know that the sometimes bumpy ride that this process causes for human visitors was not in vain!
Here is a backgrounder to the Grey Whale seen in the attached photo:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/05/bc-beached-whale-sooke.html
"A dead grey whale found beached near Victoria could prove to be a valuable specimen for researchers, says a marine scientist from the area.
The nine-metre whale, which is a protected species, was discovered Sunday on the shore in Sooke, on the west side of Vancouver Island.
It's still not clear why the whale became beached or why it died.
Determining the cause of death can give researchers a good indication of the species' overall health, said Laura Verhegge, a marine scientist at Pearson College in Victoria."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/05/bc-beached-whale-sooke.html#ixzz0kHUi62b3
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