It was a rare sighting for many travellers aboard a BC Ferries vessel when a large pod of dolphins were seen swimming alongside the vessel.
BC Ferries traveller Simone Thom captured this stunning display of dolphins swimming alongside the boat she was travelling on from Comox to Powell River.
Thom shared the video to a Facebook group with the caption “Perk of the job.” Since then, the post has garnered hundreds of comments and thousands of likes.
Those who watched the video and are familiar with the creatures confirmed the animals in the pod were Pacific white-sided dolphins.
The dolphins can be identified by their distinct shading pattern and tend to be seen in groups of 10 to 200 but can occasionally form large supergroups of over 1,000.
While there are resident dolphins in the Strait of Georgia, larger pods are more commonly seen in the open waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The video shows them swimming quickly with a behaviour known as ‘porpoising,’ where their bodies completely clear the water.”
Enjoy the video:
