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Another rare aquatic mammal has been seen in B.C.’s waters.
Video shot in Esperanza Inlet on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island captured an extremely rare sighting of a long-beaked common dolphin.
Another was seen off Malcolm Island near northeast Vancouver Island.
“So long-beaked common dolphins are extraordinarily rare for British Columbian waters,” Jackie Hildering with the Marine Education and Research Society, whale researcher communication and education, said.
“Any sightings north of California are pretty unique. And specifically Point Conception in California.”
Hildering said the long-beaked common dolphins are not often in temperate waters, but as this year is an El Niño year, the warmer waters mean different species could travel further north.
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The Pacific white-sided dolphin is common in B.C.’s waters, and Hildering said the behaviour of the two species differs.
“What it was doing, the juvenile on the West Coast was incredibly rapidly surfacing and also tail-slapping like crazy, like actually like doing a headstand and slapping and slapping and slapping,” she said.
“They really are incidental to British Columbian waters. There are very, very few known sightings. And it seems to be that with warmer water related to El Niño, likely exacerbated by climate change, that there is the likelihood of more sightings.”
The dolphins are the second rare marine sighting in the past few weeks.
Last month, whale watchers spotted a huge fin whale off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Fin whales are second only to blue whales when it comes to size, according to the IFAW. They weigh around 3,600 pounds (1,600 kg) at birth and can average about 99,000 pounds (45,000 kg) — more than a fully loaded tractor-trailer — when full grown.
They are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
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