A summer of whales and salmon

The summer of 2024 on B.C.’s West Coast was full of good surprises. Orcas came back and stayed around a long time, and everyone was gobsmacked by the salmon returns.

The Salmon People 

 is back, too: we checked in with salmon biologist Alexandra Morton who spent last summer counting salmon and watching whales return.

Morton has a whale watching lab in her home that includes a camera, underwater listening devices, a high-powered telescope and a marine radio. She talks to the fishermen and the whale watch tour operators to find out where they are seeing the whales.

“The whale activity this summer was phenomenal. From the 3^rd of July I was just living in the killer whale soundscape,” Morton said. 

Various families of orcas came together, mixing as they foraged for food, she added. “It feels so good to be stepping back to what I really wanted to do with my life,” Morton said.

Morton shares the information she gathers with OrcaLab, a research station that also has underwater microphones and cameras to monitor whale activity. Last summer was the first time Orcalab’s cameras also captured images of salmon, said Karen Wristen, co-director of the lab. 

 “You could see the salmon streaming by. This year there was a huge return of pink salmon in the early part of the season, and that was remarkable.” 

It was the second year of solid returns of the pinks and as the season went on, Chinook were also spotted, said Helena Symonds, co-director of OrcaLab. The Chinook numbers are important because they are an important food source for the orcas, she said.

 Chum salmon were so abundant that Fisheries and Oceans Canada opened the commercial fishery in Johnstone Straits, an area between Campbell River and Port McNeill.

Morton believes the return of the whales and the return of the salmon is proof that closing 42 fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago and the Discovery Islands between 2021 and 2024 is paying off. But she says the scientific proof will come as the years go by and the salmon count increases.

 Listen 

 to Episode 16 – A Summer of Whales and Salmon.