Monday Nov 12 2018 – Captain Mark took some very excited guests out on RipTide today and what a day it was! The water was calm making it a perfect day to search for whales. Soon after they left the Harbour they found Humpback Whales. These large animals come here to feed on the abundance of little fish in the area. They are a migratory whale and at this time of year they should be heading south towards Mexico and Hawaii to their breeding grounds. Luckily for us, some of these critters decide to stay a little longer in our waters to continue feeding. In some cases smaller males won’t even bother heading south until the following year. They will stay north and continue to feed until they are a little bigger and can compete with other males for the females in warmer waters.
After spending some time with Humpback Whales, Mark got a report of K Pod in the area. They were south of Victoria by Dungeness Spit on the Washington shoreline. The Southern Resident Killer Whales are in desperate need of more food. Their main diet consists of Chinook Salmon and our waters are lacking Chinook more and more each year. Although it is such a honour to spend time with these animals it is sad to think they are in constant search of food just to survive. Our guests were over the moon to be in the presence of such beauty and enjoyed learning all about them from Captain Mark. The more we educate people on these amazing animals the more people will be willing to help them survive. For instance, every person that joins SpringTide for a tour donates $2 for wildlife conservation. This $2 right now goes directly to private projects that are rearing and releasing hundreds of thousands of healthy wild Chinook each year. Education and action is required to save the Southern Residents and SpringTide is doing just that.
The project that SpringTide is heavily involved in is being viewed as being hugely successful across Canada. Last year they reared and released 230,000 Chinook, this year they did 501,000 for a total of 731,000 chinook to date. Next year they hope to rear and release close to another 1,000,000 healthy fish! It is a fantastic project and we are very proud to be a part of it.
If you are interested in donating to this worthwhile cause please contact Chris Bos at South Island anglers coalition, who is spearheading the administration of this effort and let him know how you heard about the project! You can contact him on: Chris@Anglerscoalition.com