PORT ANGELES — It was anything but common when a school of tropical common dolphins was spotted in Port Angeles Harbor on Saturday, say crew members on a whale-watching boat.
It may be the first confirmed spotting of tropical common dolphins in the Salish Sea, said Capt. Shane Aggergaard, who co-owns Island Adventures and Port Angeles Whale Watch Co., on Tuesday.
Company crew members were in disbelief when they spotted a school of about 12 common dolphins feeding in the harbor.
“I was pretty shocked,” Aggergaard said. “I’ve been running whale-watching trips for the last 20 years, and I really enjoy when we have a first. It was just incredibly exciting to see.”
At first, it was thought the dolphins were Pacific white-sided dolphins, but as the crew members got closer, they saw tannish markings, indicating they were actually common dolphins.
“It’s got the attention of the research world for sure,” Aggergaard said.
Naturalists are fairly confident the dolphins were short-beaked common dolphins, though they are waiting for researchers with the Cascadia Research Collective to confirm the subspecies.
Though it’s less likely, they may be long-beaked common dolphins.
Common dolphins prefer tropical waters and rarely swim north of California.
“I would have bet my house against seeing common dolphins in the Juan de Fuca ever,” Aggergaard said.
“Our waters are rich, cold waters full of bait fish, but we just don’t see the tropical-type critters.”
Last September, two small schools of short-beaked common dolphins were confirmed by researchers about 46 miles off southwestern Vancouver Island near the continental shelf.
Before that, the only record of the species on the west coast of Washington and British Columbia has been three dead animals discovered over the course of about 60 years.
“In 20 years of doing this, this is just unprecedented,” Aggergaard said.
“That’s one of the reasons we definitely sent photos right away to Cascadia.”
John Calambokidis, senior research biologist with the Cascadia Research Collective, said at this point, researchers aren’t 100 percent sure on the subspecies of the dolphin.
“In either case, it would be unusual,” he said.
The two subspecies are closely related, and there have been reports of long-beaked common dolphins in the Salish Sea.
The Salish Sea includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound, as well as all their connecting channels and adjoining waters, and the waters around and between the San Juan Islands in Washington state and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia.
While it’s extremely rare to find common dolphins in the Salish Sea, it’s not unprecedented for them to be this far north, Calambokidis said, citing the sightings off the British Columbia coast last year.
“Sometimes we do worry when we see animals outside of their main range,” he said. “I don’t treat it as good news or bad news quite yet.”
The school that was spotted is smaller compared to other schools of common dolphins, Calambokidis said.
“It can be small groups like that or groups of thousands,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say the existence of the small group is anything to be alarmed about.”
However, Michael Harris, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, speaking from Seattle, believes it is a symptom of ocean conditions and climate crisis.
“When we get a new species and they are tropical, I don’t think there’s any doubt of that,” Harris said. “We don’t see them up here.”
Harris said the sighting is part of a trend of unusual species being found in the Pacific Northwest.
“Sports fisherman are catching things that just aren’t part of our collective memory,” he said.
“It’s just like going out there and catching a bluefin tuna: It’s a wonderful catch, but it’s not a good thing that they’re here.”
While it’s impossible to say for sure whether it is the first sighting of common dolphins in inland waters, Harris said it’s the first time they have been spotted by members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association.
It may also be the first photographic evidence of the dolphins being in inland waters. Harris said that while there are reports of common dolphins in the Salish Sea, most are vague.
The association includes 38 companies serving 21 ports in British Columbia and Washington, and makes more than 14,000 trips per year.
“We have marine scientists in our crews and naturalists with extensive training, and we have never spotted a common dolphin in 25 years of being an association,” Harris said.
“This is unprecedented to us.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
