A British Columbia whale watching company says it is \u201cdevastated\u201d by the discovery of a dead humpback whale that it believes could have been struck by one of its vessels.<\/p>\n
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says officials are investigating after the body was found off Keats Island in Howe Sound, and couldn\u2019t provide additional details about the whale\u2019s death, which was confirmed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But the Prince of Whales company says one of its vessels made \u201cunexpected contact\u201d with a humpback whale on Thursday afternoon near the site where the dead whale was later found.<\/p>\n
The company originally reported it made \u201cminimal contact\u201d with the whale, but in an updated statement Monday says not all parts of the whale were visible at the time of the strike, and based on the timing and location of the discovery of the dead whale, they believe it could be the same animal.<\/p>\n
The company says it was not actively viewing whales when the humpback \u201csuddenly surfaced directly in the vessel\u2019s path\u201d and although they performed an emergency stop manoeuvre, \u201ccontact with the whale was made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prince of Whales says in its statement that the deceased whale found at Keats Island has been identified as a four-year-old humpback nicknamed Wisp, based on photos shared to social media,<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastated by this news. For decades, Prince of Whales has been an advocate for whale conservation, educating guests from around the world on the importance of protecting marine life,\u201d it said Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the many boat operators here in the Salish Sea, we\u2019d like to stress that if an event like this can occur with a vessel staffed by professionals actively searching for whales, it can happen to any boat at any time. Whales can surface unexpectedly, and it\u2019s critical to stay vigilant when operating in marine waterways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company previously said the sudden stop caused passengers to fall, with three requiring medical treatment after returning to Vancouver.<\/p>\n
At the time, Fisheries Department said the whale was seen surfacing three times after the strike.<\/p>\n
Multiple humpbacks have been struck by vessels over the last two months.<\/p>\n
A calf was seen with deep gash on its back after a ferry strike in Vancouver\u2019s English Bay this month, while another humpback was found dead after a BC Ferries crew reported a strike in Wright Sound near Prince Rupert in September.<\/p>\n
Prince of Whales said it was co-operating with federal officials.<\/p>\n
The Fisheries Department says the humpback population has been on the rise along B.C.\u2019s coast and vessel strikes are one of the primary threats to the whales.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs humpback whale numbers increase \u2026 their overlap with human activities and vessel traffic is also increasing,\u201d it says, adding humpbacks can be \u201cquite oblivious of boats\u201d and difficult to spot during activities such as feeding or resting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British Columbia whale watching company says it is \u201cdevastated\u201d by the discovery of a dead humpback whale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-245185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}