On to the second leg of my trip, I have flown to the other side of the country to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I wanted to visit this area because tidal energy developments have also been proposed here, and, well … because it is bursting with marine mammals!
I kicked off my visit with a whale watching trip from Victoria into the Strait of Juan de Fuca – this area is home to the Southern Resident Killer Whales the most critically endangered sub-population with a declining population of only 78 individuals. Because of this, the Southern Residents are listed as endangered under the Species At Risk Act in Canada. The USA border runs through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, so the range of this population of killer whales spans both Canada and the USA, and the regulations and protection measures are different in the two countries.
On my whale watch trip, I saw 5 species of marine mammals! Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) transient or Bigg’s Killer Whales (Orcinus orca), California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus), and Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus).
All of the whale watching boats collaborate to help each other find the whales. The result of this was that at one point, we were among thirteen other vessels with the killer whales. Boat traffic can impact on marine mammals in a number of ways – the underwater noise from boat propellers can interfere with echolocation and social communication; boats can harass the animals, interfering with their normal behaviour; and in extreme cases boats can collide with marine mammals – Whale watch boat collides with Humpback ; Southern Resident Killer Whale died from blunt force trauma
It is important therefore that small boats, and whale watch vessels in particular, adhere to a code of conduct when they are around marine mammals. I was pleased to see all of the whale watch vessels stick to this and behave responsibly. One of the quirks of the fact that the whales, and therefore the whale watching trips, straddle the border between the US and Canada is that the regulations for whale watching are different in the two countries – in Canada the minimum distance boats are allowed to approach a whale is 100m, whereas in the US it increases to 200m. I noticed one of the other boats pull our skipper up when we briefly followed the killer whales into US waters – a polite reminder over the radio made sure we increased the distance between us and the whales as per the US regulations.
We finished off with a visit to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve which was heaving with both species of sea lion. Steller Sea Lions are also listed under the Species at Risk Act as ‘special concern’.
I was quite surprised that Race Rocks was in fact the site of the first in stream tidal energy device in Canada which has since been removed. I wonder whether such a development be allowed in a Marine Protected Area with such marine mammal interest in Wales… ?
Going with the flow - Investigating Tidal Energy Consenting in areas of important Marine Mammal Habitat 
Was Race Rocks an MPA before or after the tidal development? Always challenging as tidal turbines are constrained to the same areas that marine mammals find attractive. Also interesting to hear about the different legislation and different whale watching guidelines – akin to Scotland & rUK – but I don’t think boat owners would know the differences here!
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I think it was already an MPA – I’d be interested to know what the consenting conditions were. Yes, the reason these sites are such good tidal energy sites is exactly the same reason why they’re bursting with marine life eh!
The different whale watching guidelines appeared to be widely known, and self-regulated. It would be nice to achieve the same level of awareness in the UK – but the whale watching industry is a much bigger thing here, hence greater awareness perhaps.
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