The Real Sea World – Victoria, BC

This past August was the first time I had the opportunity to see Orca’s in the wild and I have to say there is no other experience quite like it! It truly was an exhilarating, left me with the best natural high and a permanent smile for days!

I’ll be honest I have been to Sea World – a few times as a child and young adult. If documentaries like Blackfish and the Cove had been available back then I would never had made those trips. I do not regret those experiences, although I do wish there had been someone to say to me or teach me from a young age that these highly intelligent mammals do not belong in a concrete tank swimming in circles day in and day out, performing tricks in order to be fed. While I was growing up there was no such thing as social media – there was no Facebook, twitter or Instagram – what was a blog – if you wanted to write down your thoughts you did it in a journal that no one ever read. I owned my first computer at 18 and that was when I signed up for my first email address. Now it is important to use every possible outlet available to educate today’s youth about the captive marine mammal industry. The end of Sea World, Marineland Canada and other such marine parks, will only end when the demand for it ends. If we teach the youth of today that it is wrong to keep Orcas, dolphins and whales, etc in tanks then hopefully the demand for it will slowly dissipate and we will one day see the tanks of Sea World and Marineland Canada emptied.

Now (with the help of social media) I have the ability to enlighten others about the captive industry, while also making them aware that there are better options available to view these marine mammals in the wild and on their own terms. I’ve had the opportunity to experience Orca’s in the wild – I’m pretty sure my next trip will be to experience dolphins in the wild. My only experience with wild dolphins to date was during my time in Taiji as a Cove Guardian, so seeing wild dolphins is definitely at the top of my bucket list!

Here are a few videos from my experience with Transient Orca’s off the coast of Victoria, BC this past summer. While these videos only offer you a short glimpse into my experience of whale watching hopefully they will inspire you to experience Orca’s in the wild for yourself.

Transient Orca’s in Puget Sound August 19, 2015

Transient Orca’s (T010’s) August 21, 2015

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Hunger Strike for the protection of Humans & Marine Life in Queensland, Australia

Fellow Cove Guardian alumni, marine conservation campaigner and underwater photographer, Nicole McLachlan, began a hunger strike (refraining the consumption of all food and liquid with the exception of water) on February 6th, 2016, with the ultimate goal of increasing the protection of both humans and marine life off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

The hunger strike will be conducted by Nicole in order to:

Mobilize the Queensland and Australia-wide general public to urge the Queensland State Government to invest in non lethal alternatives to shark mitigation efforts within the state as well as phasing out lethal shark control methods.
Raise public awareness of and highlight the destruction caused by lethal shark control programs to both marine life and humans.
Encourage public support for non lethal alternatives to the current shark control program in Queensland.

Nicole will continue her her hunger strike until the following policy changes and commitments are met by the Queensland State Government/ Department of Primary Industries.

A commitment of at least $16 million (to match the NSW State Governments’ recent commitment) into the trial and implementation of non-lethal alternatives along Queensland beaches (to ultimately replace shark nets and drum lines).
A commitment to phase out all shark nets along the Queensland coast within the year 2016. These nets are a high risk to beach goers and marine rescue crews and should be removed as soon as possible.
A commitment to phase out all drum lines off the Queensland coastline over 5 years, by replacing these with non lethal alternatives (e.g. shark spotters programs).

Please sign Nicole’s petition on Change.org:

https://www.change.org/p/protect-both-marine-life-and-humans-along-the-queensland-coast

Follow Nicole on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/nicolemclachlan.underthesea

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Transient Orca’s in Puget Sound Summer 2015

Whale Watching in British Columbia is one of the best places in the world to view orcas, humpback whales, gray whales and other marine species. The city of Victoria and in particular the southern tip of Vancouver Island is renowned for orca sightings and is the ultimate destination for BC whale watching. Victoria is at the centre of the world’s highest concentration of killer whales. It’s perfectly situated in the middle of the southern resident killer whales’ seasonal feeding ground.

I spent a lot of time researching whale watching and looked at several different whale watching tour companies in Victoria. I finally decided to book with Eagle Wing Tours. Eagle Wing Tours is Victoria’s first award winning whale watching company and is the #1 ranked whale watching company in Victoria on TripAdvisor.

I was unsure of what to expect for my first whale watching tour, but all I knew was that it would be amazing to see wild orcas, even better to see them spyhopping, breaching and if I got to see a baby orca too then that would just be fantastic! Well turns out my first experience would not disappoint and I managed to see all of this in one trip!