Johnstone Strait

Wilderness Adventures.CA / Sea to Sky Expeditions

Sea Kayaking with Orca whales in Johnstone Strait

We provide meals beginning with Dinner on Day 1 and ending with breakfast on Day 6.

GETTING TO VANCOUVER Many of the major North American carriers fly into Vancouver or alternately, Seattle. Check with your travel agent for details. There is a bus service, Quick Shuttle [ www.quickcoach.com ], from Seattle’s airport to hotels in Vancouver. These run daily and are affordable. For more information, in North America, phone 1-800-665-2122 or 1-604-940-4428 – Fax 1-604-940-4429.

GETTING TO TSAWWASSEN FERRY TERMINAL Pacific Coach Lines provides bus service from Pacific Central Station in Vancouver. Please phone them for details regarding schedule at 1-604-662-8074.

ACCOMMODATION: JOHNSTONE STRAIT & NOOTKA SOUND It is difficult to recommend accommodation as needs and price considerations vary. Tourism British Columbia can help you locate the accommodation that best suits your needs. In North America phone, 1-800- HELLO BC. Outside North America phone, 1-250-387-1642. If you have an internet connection visit www.HelloBC.com

We suggest A ccent Inns/Vancouver Airport . They are moderately priced and provide pick-up/drop-off service from the airport and ferry terminal. We have arranged a special rate for our guests. If you are driving to Vancouver, they will allow you to leave your vehicle with them until your return. They can be reached toll free in North America at 1- 800-663-0298 or outside North America at 1-604-273-3311 and are located at www.accentinns.com/vancouver_airport/index.html . Please refer to the Wilderness Adventures / Sea to Sky Expeditions special room rate.

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SEA KAYAKING Sea kayaks allow the paddler to slip silently across the waters, explore shallow inlets and coves, and approach marine mammals and birdlife without disturbing their calm. Previous experience is not necessary. Our expert guides will provide instruction in technique and with safety. We use double and single sea kayaks for our expeditions. You can expect to paddle for approximately 4 hours per day.

Due to the unpredictability of weather, participants must be willing to expect the unexpected. As we are moving camp each day, there may be the need to paddle for longer than intended periods to accommodate winds, or rough water. Unsafe water conditions may necessitate sitting on shore until conditions for safe travel present themselves.

Johnstone Strait, near the northern tip of Vancouver Island, is witness to one of nature’s most fascinating annual occurrences. Pods of orcas or killer whales congregate here from mid-July to late September. Their visit coincides with the return of the salmon on their way to spawn up various inland waterways. The orcas take advantage of the salmon's return to feed and socialize with other pods.

We will do our best to locate orca pods and Johnstone Strait does present the best opportunity to view them. However, they are wild animals and Johnstone Strait encompasses a huge area, so we cannot guarantee sightings.

As kayaking goes, there is little to compare with the thrill of paddling alongside these awesome, exhilarating, and magnificent mammals. Coupled with this, is the myriad of small bays, sandy beaches, protected coves, lush rainforest and marine wildlife that is characteristic of these waters.

WHAT WE PROVIDE All Expeditions: transportation from the point of origin and return, national or provincial park user fees unless otherwise stated, camping fees, cooking gear, camp stoves, meals/snacks/beverages on the expedition, tents, meal preparations, tarps, major first aid supplies, emergency radio or satellite phone, and professional guides. Meals are provided starting with dinner on the 1st day and ending with breakfast on the 7th day.

Sea Kayak Expeditions: sea kayaks, paddles, PFDs [life jacket], spray skirts, paddling jackets.

2 Wilderness Adventures.CA / Sea to Sky Expeditions

Sea Kayaking with Orca whales in Johnstone Strait: Itinerary

Day 0: Arrival in Vancouver. Our guide will contact you the night befo re the expedition start date to arrange for pickup or meeting time in the morning. If you are not there he/she will leave a message about plans and a phone number to contact us should the need arise.

Day 1: We will take the 7:45 am BC Ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. The crossing is about 2 hours. We will drive north along the Island Highway to our put-in point in Johnstone Strait & our first night’s campsite at NaKa Creek. Lunch will be enroute and is your responsibility.

Days 2 – 6: Several factors, such as weather, tides, current, group ability, group goals, and the distribution of pods will ultimately deci de our campsites, paddling time, and route, and as such, a day by day, precise itinerary, is undesirable & impractical.

We have developed an itinerary which focuses on the areas in Johnstone Strait and which present the best chance of viewing orcas. By so doing we hope to avoid the busier marine traffic around Telegraph Cove and the islands in that area. Along the way, there will be opportunities to explore the many coves, beaches, and marine life that characterize the strait. Different campsites are planned throughout our paddle.

We will return to our put-in point on Day 6 and return to Vancouver sometime in the evening.

The campsites identified on the map are possible ones. The guides must determine, based on the factors listed above, what is most practical.

WILDLIFE VIEWING GUIDELINES People who enjoy watching and photographing wildlife can sometimes harm wildlife unintentionally. Most animals react with alarm when approached by humans on foot or in a canoe or kayak. Depending on the situation, an animal may remain, flee, or in some cases, attack.

Such reactions are stressful and cause the animal to expend energy. Although an animal might easily compensate for the energy lost in a single, short disturbance, prolonged or repeated disturbances may add up to higher costs than an animal can afford.

Repeated disturbance may cause wildlife to avoid an area, even if the area provides the best food, nesting site, or source of essential minerals. Even a single disturbance during nesting season might be harmful to sensitive species such as loons.

For Birds:

- Always view any nesting species from a distance. Large masses of sticks in the tops of tall, broken topped trees along the coastline are often the obvious nests made by bald eagles. You may spot other nests as well. Avoid nests and never handle eggs or young. - Do not handle baby birds. People often find young fledgling birds that have just left the nest. Do not move these birds often they are near the nest and their parents know how to find them! - Leave injured birds where you find them. These birds seldom survive in captivity. - Use binoculars or a spotting scope to avoid disturbing birds. - Be aware of the bird's behavior and watch for clues that you might be disrupting normal behavior.

Signs that you are too close to birds!

- Repeated flushing. - Raised head, looking at observers. - Skittishness. - Excessive preening or pecking at dirt or foot, bill wiping. - Alarm calls, repeated chirping and chipping. - Broken wing distraction display.

For Mammals:

Avoid pursuing animals for photographs. Use telephoto lenses to photograph wildlife at a distance. Those prize winning photographs seen in magazines are often taken by professional photographers who spend thousands of dollars on specialized telephoto equipment and have had years of experience.

Be especially careful around females with young. Disturbing them can cause unnecessary expenditures of energy. Females are generally very protective of their young - getting too close can put you in a dangerous predicament. Leave injured animals where you find them.

Signs that you are too close to mammals!

- Head raised high, ears pointed in the direction of the observer. - Skittishness, the animal jumps at sounds or movements. - Animal moves away or lowers head with ears back in preparation for a charge, erect hairs on neck and shoulders. - Displays of aggression or nervous behavior. Signs that you are too close to marine mammals! - A rapid change in direction or speed. - Escape tactics such as prolonged diving or fleeing into the water from a haulout or rookery. - Evasive swimming patterns. - Interruptions of feeding or migratory activities. - Aggressive postures or charges directed at intruders. - Attempts to shield a calf or pup from a human observer or a vessel. - Vocalizations, finning, tail lobbing, tail raking, or breaching.

Orcas of Johnstone Strait

The Romans called them orcas, literally “demons from hell”. Spanish whalers called them “whale killers” after their vicious and co-ordinated attacks on other whales, and now they are called killer whales or simply orcas. Having received some pretty bad press over the years, their image has improved recently as a result of research which has shown that they are intelligent, social creatures, and harmless to humans.

Orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family, and are second only to humans as the most widely distributed mammal on earth. They are characterized by their large size (males can reach 9.5 m and weigh 10 tonnes), distinctive black and white markings and a prominent dorsal fin that can reach up to 1.8 m in length.

There are, in fact, three distinctly different types; residents, transients, and offshores. Residents are the most studied because they do not stray very far from their home territory during summer, and they return year after year to the same area. Transients roam over a larger coastal area than the residents, and travel in smaller groups, sometimes hunting and traveling as a pair. Very little is known about offshores at this time. They are known to travel in large groups of up to 60 individuals, and they seldom venture into protected waters.

In the early 1970s, it was discovered that it was possible to identify orcas by unique markings on their dorsal fins and the appearance of a “saddle” patch at the base of the fin. This led to photo identification and the ability of researchers to monitor orca populations, track their movements, and study their social behaviour. Pods can also be identified by their vocalizations.

The majority of orcas in Johnstone Strait are residents, but transients are seem at times. The major difference between the two sub-species is diet. Residents have adapted to a diet of fish, mostly salmon. Transients appear to feed exclusively on seals, sea lions, and porpoises. They have been even known to enjoy the occasional deer and moose, as these will swim narrow coastal channels.

These feeding patterns explain the high resident population in Johnstone Strait. Between June and September, thousands of salmon pass through the confined strait on the way their spawning grounds. They feats on the salmon and then return to open water during winter and spring.

Thanks to the identification procedures much is known about their social structure of maternal groups, sub-pods, clans, and communities. These terms are used to describe groups of orcas that range in size from 4 (maternal group) to up to 300 (a community). Pods typically contain 20 orcas but as many as 50 have been observed.

Orcas are unique in that family units stay together and do not disperse. A maternal group may contain four generations whose ages could well parallel a human family. Females may reach an age of 80, and usually give birth around 15. Orcas belong to a matrilineal genealogy, that is, an individual’s ancestry is traced through it’s mother and her relatives. To avoid inbreeding it is thought that males mate with cows in other pods, so paternity is usually not known.

Orcas identify each other and other groups by vocalization called dialects. These high pitched squeals, squawks and screams (not to be confused with the “clicking” sounds that are used for echolocation) form their “language”. To the trained ear it can be used to identify pods. Dialect also distinguishes resident, transient, and offshore orcas. The vocalizations appear to be used as a communication device to stay in touch with family members or to identify other orca pods. Different families do not appear to communicate vocally because they have different dialects.

On the whole, the numbers of orcas of Johnstone Strait are increasing at a 2.5% rate per year to a believed healthy total of 200. Orcas are competing with sport and commercial fishing which ultimately determine whether they continue to remain in the area during summer or go elsewhere.