Meet orcas and whales on Canada’s wild west coast

If you’re planning a visit to Canada’s west coast, there’s a good chance your trip will either begin or end in Vancouver. From there, you can take the ferry across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver Island and stay in the picturesque harbour city of Victoria for at least a night.

Be sure to also experience the many attractions of the island, aside from Victoria, just off the beaten track. Here’s a few to consider:

West Coast Trail:

One of the world’s top hiking trails starts in Port Renfrew, 111km from Victoria. It runs 75km along the island’s rugged southwest edge to Bamfield, taking in waterfalls, old growth trees and desolate beaches. Some 22,000 grey whales migrate along this coastline between February and October each year, and some of the cliffs along the trail offer great vantage points where you can check on their progress.

Parts of the trail are extremely rugged and will demand a high level of fitness and skill. Approximately 6,000 people complete the trail every year, and it usually takes around seven days.

Whale Watching:

The waters off Vancouver Island offer some of the best places in the world to see humpback whales and orcas (also known as killer whales), as well as grey whales.

For the best opportunities to see them, visit Telegraph Cove, around 460km north of Victoria. The town lies along the Johnstone Strait, a narrow body of water separating Vancouver Island from the dense woodlands of the British Columbia mainland. It has fewer than two dozen human residents, however each year it becomes home to the world’s largest concentration of orcas when around 200 of the species make it their base between June and December.

Several local boat companies will take you out for a closer look, including Stubbs Island Whale Watching, which offers “ethical whale watching” led by trained marine naturalists. They provide hydrophones, allowing passengers to eavesdrop on the whales’ communications.

Salmon Run:

Just 17km from Victoria, Goldstream Provincial Park is the site of one of nature’s most amazing sights as tens of thousands of chum, coho and chinook salmon make their epic journey from the sea upstream to the creeks where they hatched four years earlier.

Between October and December each year, there are so many salmon, and in such shallow water, that it’s possible to pick them out by hand (but you shouldn’t!). The salmon at this point of their lifecycle are dying. In the previous weeks they have switched from saltwater to a freshwater environment; negotiated rapids, logs jams and waterfalls; and engaged in battles with others of their species for the best locations near spawning females.

The act of spawning, signals the end of the salmons’ lives, and the creeks become littered with the sights, and smells, of rotting carcasses. It is a sad spectacle, but it is as nature intends it to be. The upside is that at this time the park attracts the largest concentrations of bald eagles in Canada, as they come to feast on the spawned-out salmon carcasses.

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