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<\/p>\n\u201cTo my knowledge, we have not dealt with this in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Prince of Whales\u2019 general manager Elspeth McGillivray said in a statement on Monday that the firm was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the discovery of the dead humpback off Keats Island, days after one of its vessels hit a whale in Howe Sound. It said it could have been the same whale, based on the location and timing.<\/p>\n
Gless said the dead animal was a four-year-old humpback known as Wisp, but its cause of death isn\u2019t known as Fisheries and Oceans Canada is still investigating.<\/p>\n
Fisheries and Oceans Canada said in a statement that humpback numbers had rebounded over the last two decades, especially in the southern Salish Sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe probability and lethality of a ship strike depends on factors such as whale density, ship traffic, as well as the size and speed of boats,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent years, abundance of humpback whales in the southern Salish Sea was lowest in winter and highest in fall, with an estimated 416 individual whales using Canadian waters between Vancouver and the western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lance Barrett-Lennard, a British Columbia marine mammal research scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said recent boat strikes that have injured and killed humpback whales seem \u201calmost inevitable\u201d as their numbers increase in waters frequented by high-speed vessels.<\/p>\n
Barrett-Lennard said no boat operator wants to hit a whale, and the \u201cculture\u201d of mariners is evolving to be more aware of the risks, \u201cbut not fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gless said the association has annual training and best practices for its members, including slowing down in the vicinity of whales and constant communication between vessels.<\/p>\n
She said the Prince of Whales vessel was in an area with no reported sightings and was scanning the area when a humpback unexpectedly surfaced in its path. The collision resulted in three passengers needing medical treatment back in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
McGillivray said Tuesday the firm had no further comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that I really want to stress is that if this could happen to a trained vessel that was actively and very carefully searching for whales, it can certainly happen to any vessel,\u201d Gless said.<\/p>\n
She said it was incumbent on both professional operators and all boaters to be \u201cexceptionally vigilant out there on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gless said she was aware of the criticisms of the whale-watching industry, but the vessels play a key role in communicating with ferries and other vessels about whale sightings, helping \u201cprevent or at least reduce greatly the risk of ship strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of on the front lines,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are actions that our operators are taking every single day in order to ensure that the whales that we do watch and rely on are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gless said it\u2019s been a \u201cterrible year\u201d for entanglements involving whales and fishing gear, and whale-watching vessels are often the first to report them to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for rescue operations.<\/p>\n
Earlier in October, a humpback calf was deeply gashed after Hullo Ferries reported a collision near Vancouver, while a dead humpback was found near Prince Rupert in September after being struck by a BC Ferries vessel.<\/p>\n
Barrett-Lennard said vessels travelling at high speeds create more noise, which also harms whales, and dangers to whales could be lessened if boats reduced speeds in known whale \u201chot spots\u201d and crews increase efforts to spot animals during voyages.<\/p>\n
He said the rarity of such strikes doesn\u2019t mean more care isn\u2019t needed from boat operators, likening it to traffic safety measures in school zones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live next to a school and the kids walking to school and there\u2019s crosswalks and so on. I\u2019ve never hit a kid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason that we don\u2019t hit kids all the time is because we\u2019re incredibly careful. And there\u2019s signs and there\u2019s crossing guards and we\u2019ve created a system to make it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2025.<\/p>\n
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo my knowledge, we have not dealt with this in the past.\u201d Prince of Whales\u2019 general manager Elspeth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,66,82,323],"class_list":["post-247373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-science","tag-sports","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247373","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=247373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}