First Grey whale in Vancouver for 100 years18/05/2010 16:01:48 Grey whale sighting may be a sign of improving ecosystems
May 2010. A grey whale spotted feeding just off Vancouver may be a sign that efforts to restore the area's natural ecosystem are working are beginning to take effect. The whale has been seen in and around different parts of Vancouver for a week or so, including False Creek, Squamish and Howe Sound.
All the Grey whales that used to frequent the area before 1880 were hunted into extinction in just 20 years by the Hudson Bay Company.
Grey whale in the Mediterranean
The news of a grey whale in Vancouver comes in the same week of an extraordinary sighting of a Grey whale in the Eastern Mediterranean off Israel.
The whale probably followed a school of herring into the area. Some 20,000 Grey whales migrate past the western side of Vancouver Island every year on their way from their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea and their breeding grounds off Mexico. A few hundred have made the west coast of Vancouver Island their summer home, but this is the first record of one off Vancouver for more than 100 years.