Pacific Whale Watch Association 2021 Sightings and Sentinel Actions
2021 Summary
Bigg's killer whales were the most frequently reported whales to the PWWA App, documented on 304 days of 2021. Bigg's killer whales were followed by humpback whales (301 days), gray whales (146 days), minke whales (145 days), Southern Resident killer whales (99 days), and Northern Resident killer whales (53 days). Due to strict regulation of their viewing, Southern Resident killer whales were physically encountered by PWWA operators on far fewer days than they were reported in the PWWA App. Nearly half (47%) of all Southern Resident entries were manual entries made for the sake of situational awareness. Northern Resident killer whales were encountered primarily by PWWA operators in the northern Strait of Georgia and outside the Salish Sea near north Vancouver Island.
During 2021, the first complete year of using the PWWA App's sentinel action feature, PWWA captains, naturalists, and crew documented 874 sentinel actions. The most frequently documented sentinel actions were reactive sentinel actions (53%) involving stopping, slowing, or diverting vessels traveling too fast and/or too close to whales. Proactive sentinel actions to warn nearby vessels of whales in the area made up 33% of all sentinel actions documented in the PWWA App. Collection of potentially harmful marine debris, such as balloons and derelict fishing gear, accounted for 13% of sentinel actions with incidents classified as "other", such as reporting entangled or potentially injured marine life, making up the remaining 1% of sentinel actions. For the 753 sentinel actions involving interactions with other vessels, PWWA members were successful in achieving a positive change in behavior in 70% of all encounters.
Law enforcement was present during at least one whale encounter on 105 days of 2021. Of 10,444 firsthand GPS entries for killer whales, humpbacks, gray whales, and minke whales, law enforcement was reported as being present during 293 entries (2.81%). Law enforcement was most likely to be present with Southern Resident killer whales (23.1% of entries) followed by Northern Resident killer whales (10.5%), and Bigg's killer whales (4.5%). Law enforcement was least likely to be present during encounters with baleen species such as humpback whales (0.6%), minke whales (0.5%), and gray whales (0.4%). Law enforcement presence was most likely during the peak whale watching months of June through September.
Citation
Gless, E. J., & Krieger, J. (2022). Pacific Whale Watch Association 2021 sightings and sentinel actions report. Pacific Whale Watch Association.