WHALE WATCHING HARASSMENT

[high tide]

I Know I'll get slammed for this but I can't hold my opinion....... And thousands agree with me.
Lets face it....... These Whale Watching Tours are doing MORE HARM than any other group to the SRKWhales.
From Vancouver to Campbell River, Nanaimo to Tofino and every where between. These groups Chase, Leepfrog, intercept .....disturb...... These whales almost year round.
Way to go!
Many of you so called protectors, environmentally friendly Friends of the Whales are doing way more harm then good to their existence, causing them stress, loss of weight due to feeding interruptions etc etc.
Yet you go untouched by our big decision makers at DFO and the federal government. You all should be ashamed of yourselves and look closely in the mirror at what your doing almost every day.
Quit denying you are part of the problem. We know many of you study and help birth and death rates buttttt. What do you actually do to help while Chasing them down for that photo?
Question to those that disagree.........
What Do you do for conservation, for salmon habitat, to rebuild Feed for the SRKWhales like many of us dedicated sportsmen and women that dedicate thousands of volunteer hours to our fisheries and habitat?

In my opinion....... These operations should be shut down completely as it is their goal to produce encounters with the SRKWHALES ....... All in the name of good for the Whales ....... My back side!
My 2 cents.

 

[Whitebuck]

Great post. Would be great to get some video footage of these groups.
I have seen first hand these groups off the Fraser as well as off Sooke bombarding feeding resident pods.
Off ukee when the transients were smashing a group of sea lions off red can...boat comes right up with clients and all of a sudden the pod leaves .
I do however love to give false coordination’s of whales to the groups who are on the radio channels!

 

[The Jackel]

Right on Hightide couldn't agree more. I see this **** every day in front of our house makes me sick, hhhmmm maybe i will just put the boat in JR and run around like a lunatic too, day in day out then when there are no more salmon and whales i will park my boat and use it as a lawn ornament

 

[wildmanyeah]

Make some prop Fowlers and rename your boat sea Shepard.

Time to protect these whales from being chased all day.

 

[agentaqua]

Make some prop Fowlers and rename your boat sea Shepard. Time to protect these whales from being chased all day.

Sounds like fun. Maybe get a blow-up orca and tow it around calling-in the whale watching boats on the radio. Call it a study - ask sea shepherd for funding...

 

[searun]

Sounds like fun. Maybe get a blow-up orca and tow it around calling-in the whale watching boats on the radio. Call it a study - ask sea shepherd for funding...

Now that is funny!

I have to say that the whale watching industry needs to clean up their act. I have personally seen on many occasions, whale watching operators jump ahead of whales calculating the rough path they are on and intentionally placing their vessels in the path. Often this results in whales being forced off their prey. I think it is time for a 400 m exclusion zone to prevent this sort of practice from happening.

How about also excluding all Whale Watchers from the Forage closure imposed on Rec fishers. Seems to me that the big $$ lobby of the whale watching industry pulled a fast one and tossed the rec community under the bus.

 

[calmsea]

Do you have any idea how much whale watching companies give to the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year? You better do your homework before you start shooting blindly around in anger!

 

[high tide]

As above merely questioning what do they give back.

Still doesn't justify the Chasing, Harassment, interruptions that have boomed over the last several years. Actually helps to explain why they are in the situation they are in.

In my opinion....... They should be stopped immediately if the Whales are in as desperate a plight as so many say they are.

Smoke in mirrors.

 

[StirItUp]

Wow, what timing... An Orca was tangled in a commercial prawn line yesterday. I'm sure more details will follow.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/caugh...ale-thanks-rescuers-with-giant-leap-1.3955181

Salt Spring Island - I wonder if this took place in one of the effected "refuge" areas

 

[Tips Up]

Do you have any idea how much whale watching companies give to the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year? You better do your homework before you start shooting blindly around in anger!

What does that have to do with the fact they are harassing these endangered whales and not closed to these areas?

What's next?
An experimental chinook quota system where I can fish anywhere I want for a fee? (Donation)

 

[tincan]

yup, several of them do donate quite a bit to PSF and to the Sooke net pen project and other salmon enhancement groups. IMO, similar to the lodges and even to rec fishermen, there are some whale watching companies that are doing more than others. In fact, there are probably just a small handful that are doing way more than their share.... again, similar to the lodges and rec fishermen. Most of the staff at these whale watching companies are great people who love the outdoors and what to do what's best for the whales and salmon. Lots of good folks out there in all industries trying to do the right thing. Some a-holes in every industry as well stirring the pot. I think we'd be better off assuming we need to work together on this whole salmon issue as infighting isn't going to get us far.

https://www.psf.ca/contributors/whale-watching
https://www.victoriawhalewatching.com/about-us/springtides-contribution-conservation/ (SVIAC sooke project supporter)

Do you have any idea how much whale watching companies give to the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year? You better do your homework before you start shooting blindly around in anger!

 

[AndrewH]

Took this video (this is a screen shot of vid) about 3 weeks ago off South Bowen... one of three whale boats that chased the orca until I lost sight of them all.

 

[high tide]

Thanks for posting Andrew.
This us what I've witnessed numberous times on our local waters off Vancouver, Ladner,Active , Porlier, Thrasher...... They are relentless. Day after Day. Numberous directions by various outfits.
But....... Do no harm..... Right?

 

[calmsea]

What does that have to do with the fact they are harassing these endangered whales and not closed to these areas?

What that has to do with it? That you should probably thank the whale watching companies for many of the salmon that you caught but they helped raising with their donations. And without their donations the orcas would have had even less to feed on.
But I agree, better enforcement and a revision of their operating procedures is probably warranted. Tincan is absolutely right, we are much better off working alongside with them addressing the lack of salmon while encouraging them to improve their practice. Maybe time slots for whale watching could work so that the whales have privacy breaks between the visitors. Those sort of things would be much better solutions than your hate tirades just out of anger and sorrow for you own situation.

 

[fogged in]

Do you have any idea how much whale watching companies give to the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year? You better do your homework before you start shooting blindly around in anger!

Are saying money talks?
Can YOU tell us exactly how much money the Whale Watching community gives out and to who, in support of their industry?
Make no mistake, the Whale Watching industry are not big supporters of the Sport Fishing community.

 

[kaelc]

Are saying money talks?
Can YOU tell us exactly how much money the Whale Watching community gives out and to who, in support of their industry?
Make no mistake, the Whale Watching industry are not big supporters of the Sport Fishing community.

$2 per passenger to the PSF

 

[searun]

Do you have any idea how much whale watching companies give to the Pacific Salmon Foundation every year? You better do your homework before you start shooting blindly around in anger!

I really don't care how much they donate. What matters to me is that they clean up their act and respect the whales. Part of that is removing physical and acoustic disturbances which impact by up to 25% their feeding success. Whale watching activity has crossed a line in the sand that in my view needs to be corrected. Moreover, when we have a refuge area set aside it should apply to ALL users, particularly whale watchers. Recreational fishers are not chasing whales, rather the opposite. We are fishing for salmon and whales wander into areas being fished. Most rec anglers know that fishing pretty much dies when whales are present, so pull their gear and go else where. Whale watchers on the other hand hunt the whales down and follow them in close proximity. In many cases they charge ahead of where whales are moving to position their guests in a place where the whales will come very close. Hell, they can't even respect the current 100m spatial exclusion zone. What good is a 200 m exclusion. Needs to be at least 400m so we take the guess work out of staying far enough back to reduce the physical and acoustic threat pillar.

 

[Blackmax]

DFO should be announcing the ban of whale watching boats in closed fishing areas soon, from what I have been told they have no choice.

 

[calmsea]

Well, if the whale watching companies go under I will feel for the many salmon restoration projects that were funded by their donations. Not good at all. We had better found a solution that included them as viable businesses able to continue to donate to our common goals.

 

[california]

Well, if the whale watching companies go under I will feel for the many salmon restoration projects that were funded by their donations. Not good at all. We had better found a solution that included them as viable businesses able to continue to donate to our common goals.

If the whale watching industry were to go under (which they wont) the benefit to the whales would more than compensate for the PR donations they make to a few net pen projects. Irrespective of the SRKW issues and the disruption to their feeding activities, we have a large group of Biggs whales that eat pinipeds, and are also harassed by these companies as soon as they enter the inside waters. They rely on stealth and surprise to successfully hunt. With flotillas of boats following them (and jumping ahead of them) what do you think happens to hunt success? Seals and Sea ions are intelligent, do you think they don't notice the commotion and haven't learned what a killer whale escort looks and sounds like? They probably know individual whale watching boats. The Biggs whales are also intelligent animals, they probably figure out there is enough prey on the outside without the harassment and feed there. For all of you wanting an east coast style seal kill here, maybe you should speak up about the natural kill the whale watching industry may be preventing.

My opinion is the whale industry is not the whales nor the sportfishing industries friend, they would throw sport fishing under the bus in a heartbeat (probably privately already have) , and their PR donations are not a reason to support their activities in any way.