March is finished, and what a March it was in Clayoquot Sound!

Clayoquot Sound saw multiple herring spawns, leading to a huge variety of wildlife taking advantage of the opportunity to feed. Amongst the scoters, sea lions and bald eagles taking advantage of the opportunity, we saw a number of our “local” grey whales return.

During the summer months we typically see Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) grey whales. These are whales that are unlikely to migrate all the way up to places like the Chukchi Sea, but feed further south. There’s a bit of a myth that those whales are only here in the summer, and that the whales we’re seeing right now are “passing through”. This spring has been another example of that not being the case. We’ve photographed 10 of our “locals” already, and we’d expect many more were feeding close by at other herring spawn events. Many of these whales have nicknames, others are designated codes by local researchers. If you joined us on a tour this spring perhaps you’ll spot one of the whales you saw, below.

This is just the start of the season, and we’d expect to see more and more “locals” returning soon. At this point in the year we often start heading down to Long Beach for another feeding event that takes place in April and May. Who would we expect to see? You never know – but we’re definitely hoping to find Marcus and Pattern. These two whales have been seen feeding together by our team in every year since 2018.

Will they meet up again this year? We can’t wait to find out!

By Mark Sawyer