© Gretchen Freund, Postmedia News
Victoria - The sound of lengthy whale blows, echoing through the fog in Robson Bight, caught whale researcher Marie Fournier's attention Monday as she kept watch at an OrcaLab outpost.
Then, out of the fog, swam two massive fin whales - something never previously documented in Robson Bight, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.
Fin whales, the second largest animal after blue whales, are starting to return to B.C. waters after being almost wiped out by decades of whaling, but they usually prefer the open ocean and recent sightings have been several kilometres offshore.
"I was completely surprised. I had to do three or four double takes to make sure what I was seeing," Fournier said.
The identity giveaway was the size of the animals, estimated at about 22 metres, and their huge blows, reaching five metres into the air, said Fournier, who then called Jared Towers, a Fisheries and Oceans research technician.
When Towers arrived to take identification photographs he discovered that he photographed one of the whales in Hecate Strait last summer.
"Just by luck it turned out to be the same animal," Towers said.
It is hoped that the growing catalogue of photos will give some idea of the size of the fin whale population off Canada's west coast, he said.
