KELŁOLEMEĆEN (Killer Whales) T065Bs

July 30, 2025

This month our team has seen the T065Bs 4 times! They have been all throughout Á,LEṈENEȻ ȽTE (our homeland) including the W̱SÁNEĆ Inlet! On July 30, our team did a loop of the Southern Gulf Islands and at the end of the day encountered the T065Bs near ṮXITEN (Knapp Isl.) heading towards Satellite Channel. This group was surrounded by vessels including pleasure crafts and commercial whale watchers. In the short time we were with the group there were 17 vessels within one kilometer of the whales. Western science has proven that vessel presence near killer whales not only impacts them acoustically, preventing them from hearing each other, their surroundings, and their prey, but also the presence of vessels alone causes changes to their behaviour and increases energy expenditure. We hope soon the Government of Canada will mandate restrictions around the number of vessels allowed to follow a group of whales, to improve their quality of life.

All photos are taken with a 200-600 zoom lens.