Experts say this is the first time this particular whale has been seen north of California. Mike Dobbs was working in Beaver Cove on northern Vancouver Island when two orcas swam ashore a few kilometers from Telegraph Cove. Dobbs said he had never encountered whales on that beach before. WATCHES | Rare white killer whale swims near the dock at Beaver Cove:
Beaver Cove, BC, workers treated with killer whale
Two curious Bigg’s killer whales visited Campbell River resident Mike Dobbs’ workplace on Wednesday. The resident of Campbell River was even more surprised when he saw that an orca was completely white in color. “Some people identified the spot around the face as definitely having the same eye markers as an orca.” Dobbs was immediately concerned when he saw the orcas in water as shallow as half a meter. He says their bellies could be felt crawling along the ocean floor. He and some other bystanders began calling the Vancouver Aquarium, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and other experts to learn how to help the whales. However, Dobbs says that after about half an hour in shallow water, the larger orca swam back to open water, followed a few minutes later by the smaller, white orca. “Eventually she kind of squirmed and pulled herself up from the bottom and made her way to her mother.” A white orca, nicknamed Frostbite, swims with its mother in the waters of Beaver Cove on Vancouver Island on August 10, 2022. (Mike Dobbs) Scientists contacted by Dobbs were able to identify the white orca as OCT050C1 – also known as Frostbite – and the companion orca as her mother, OCT050C0. “This particular group, the OCT50s, is actually part of this outer coast transient group that spends most of its time in Oregon and California and usually in deeper water,” said Josh McInness, a transient whale specialist at the University of British Columbia. Colombia. Mammal Research Unit. He says the last sighting of Frostbite, a three-year-old, and his mother was on June 24 near the Farallon Islands, off the coast of San Francisco. Erin Gless of the Pacific Whale Watch Association says this is the first time Frostbite has been spotted north of California. “This particular family has been seen as far south as Mexico,” he said. “[This sighting] it really shows that this family, in particular, seems to have a very wide range.” The distance between the Mexico sighting in late October 2021 and Wednesday’s sighting near Telegraph Cove is more than 2,500 kilometers. WATCHES | Killer whales call out in shallow waters near Telegraph Cove:
Orcas heard calling off Vancouver Island
Two curious transient killer whales spotted in shallow waters near Telegraph Cove, BC McInness says there has been an increase in Outer Coast orca pod sightings north of the California coast and could be due to the abundance of prey in British Columbia waters. “It could be related to the increase in seals and sea lions we’re seeing,” he said. McInness says it’s not clear what causes the white coloring — it could be albino or leucistic, meaning it has white pigmentation. Gless says there have been at least two other known white orcas – one named Tl’uk and the other named Chimo who were well known in the 1970s when they were kept at Sealand. Gless says white coloring may be a rare gene.
