Orca baby boom off Tofino
Fifth spring 2015 orca calf spotted in waters off Long Beach Lodge Resort in TofinoThere appears to be a baby boom in the waters off Long Beach Lodge Resort. On June 12, another newborn orca was spotted near Tofino. According to the Tofino Whale Centre, the calf was spotted with its mother T121A, a rarely seen transient. There have been four other calves born in the last few months in the waters of Long Beach, but those have been in the resident southern pods.
John Forde of the Tofino Whale Society and Strawberry Isle Marine Research Centre was on the water, observing the pod and the new addition. Forde told media outlets the calf appears to have been born the past week and looks healthy and adventurous and was swimming with a female orca.Forde said the transient pod, which come to B.C. waters from as far away as Alaska and California, were first spotted near Meares Island, northeast of Tofino.
Like the May sightings of new orca calfs, this sighting is generating a lot of optimism. Forde told The Province newspaper that a new calf is very exciting because orca numbers are endangered, although the transient population is more stable than the resident one. He said that at least four calves have been born in the resident pods in the past seven months.
