Whale watching guide fined $10,000

[Bryan Allen]

Campbell River whale watching guide fined $10K for getting to close to endangered orcas

A Campbell River whale watching guide has been fined $10,000 for knowingly approaching and getting too close to an endangered pod of killer whales.

www.cheknews.ca

 

[SalishSlayer]

its about time!!!
All these whale watching boats are on top of Humpbacks every day, strange they only care about Killer whales.

 

[sly_karma]

Nice to see them dismiss the usual excuse: "I didn't approach the whales, they came toward me." These guys are around whales all the time, they can surely predict their usual movement patterns, and DFO called him on it.

Whale watching boats are in a structural conflict of interest every single time they go out. Their customers are paying to be taken to see whales, yet the regs mandate a big separation between boats and whales. They are always under pressure to push the rules to the limit.

Only speculating here, but this guy must be disliked by his colleagues/competitor's, sounds like they were the ones who reported him. Would be sensible for the whale watching community to deliberately call out bad actors in an effort to protect the image of the industry and to direct possible punitive measures onto non compliant operators rather onto the entire fleet.

Of course, if the whale watching industry was genuinely about protecting whales and making conditions better for them, they would voluntarily limit their daily hours spent on top of the pods.

 

[beemer]

there is no question this guy deserved a severe fine, just to point out it was other whalewatching companies that reported him and asked DFO to do something about it.
To clarify some of the rules around whalewatching in our area;
-must be 100 meters away from humpbacks
-No intentional viewing of Southern Residents Orca , must be 400 meters if it does happen
- Whalewatching boats displaying a purple AV signal flag must be 200 meters from Transient Orca.
- All members of the public must be 400 meters from All Orca.

As the public wakes up to irresponsible practices around whales hopefully it will lessen the demand for whalewatching.

beemer

 

[Gong Show]

I like this article where it states that there were 6 whale watching operations surrounding these whales at this specific time.
I do not give the 2 operations that gave evidence on this occurrence too much gratitude, this is just business to them.
I guess I am jaded, I have been floating around, engine and transducers off, after seeing whales a mile or so away, just to have multiple whale watching outfits come roaring in at 20 plus knots, throwing wake at us, to park right in front of us, at or into the exclusion zone. Some of them are the same outfits that gave evidence on this event.

Times Colonist article

 

[Gong Show]

To balance my jaded views, I am thrilled by the success of the local humpbacks' reproduction prowess.
I like orcas, but I have a soft spot for humpbacks.

Humpback calves abound!