Whales are not just a passing interest. I often say that killer whales are one of the reasons I moved to Vancouver Island.
Seeing whales from shore required a few things. It means living with notifications turned on, a Facebook chat dedicated to whale sightings. Keeping a camera bag ready by the door. It also means having at least one EF-to-RF adapter in the kit at all times, just in case.
On this day, the group lit up with reports of transient orcas travelling north from Pipers Lagoon. I drove to a favourite bluff along Fillinger and waited. The wind was up. Waves wore thick white caps, which made spotting dorsal fins difficult. Still, once you catch the first blow with the naked eye, you know the show has begun.
Two bulls eventually surfaced, their tall dorsal fins cutting clean lines above the swell. A fisherman saw them too and laughed to his friend, “Orcas! No more fish for a little while.” Further along the shore, a lone kayaker bounced over the waves, unaware that a pod of apex predators was swimming only a few meters away.
After they passed, I drove to Lantzville, hoping for one last look before dark. An hour went by. Nothing. Just a few swimmers. I was about to leave when an older couple approached, eyeing the long lens. “Any whales tonight?” they asked. I told them I had followed a pod from Nanaimo but had seen nothing so far. The man, calm as anything, said, “Oh, there’s an orca.”
I turned, and there they were, surfacing again, this time only meters from the beach, near swimmers who had no idea what moved past them. Someone on the sand laughed and said, “There’s Jodie swimming near orca without even knowing it.” As the pod advanced along the beach and toward the limestone point, the low sun turned their blows into golden mist. The water glowed, and you could see the clean black curves of their bodies cutting through bands of warm light and, further away, the misty silhouette of trees on Nanoose Bay.
There were no breaches, no hunts or dramatic chases. Just fins in the water, clouds of warm mist soaring above and the realization that I had finally captured yet another bucket shot of mine.
-Robin
This post was adapted from a blog, read the original here.
Leave a Reply