Every summer along British Columbia's coast, many witness the same troubling sight: flotillas of whale-watching vessels surrounding a single whale or pod of whales for hours at a time as they replace each other in a continuous cycle. Mothers with newborn calves are routinely sought out as extraordinary viewing opportunities, and gray whales, already facing food shortages and unusually high mortality, are approached as tourist attractions rather than vulnerable wildlife. Although individual operators may follow existing regulations, the cumulative impact of dozens of daily encounters, engine noise, and relentless pursuit places unnecessary pressure on resting, feeding, nursing, and socializing animals.

Now is the time to move beyond the minimum standards and adopt regulations that put their welfare first. We have all seen the crowded fleets, the repeated approaches, and the prolonged pursuit. This is an opportunity to speak up for the whales before more populations are pushed toward crisis.

British Columbia is home to some of the world's most remarkable marine mammals. Killer whales, gray whales, humpback whales, minke whales, and other cetaceans depend on our waters for feeding, socializing, nursing, and migration.

Climate change, declining prey availability, pollution, underwater noise, and vessel traffic are placing unprecedented pressure on marine mammals throughout British Columbia. Many of these threats require long-term, international solutions, but repeated disturbance from commercial whale watching is one of the few pressures governments can reduce immediately through stronger regulation.

Whales alter their natural behaviours when being watched at such close distances. They abandon feeding and hunting, delay rest, or expose their calves to repeated disturbance for human viewership. The responsibility of wildlife management is to protect wildlife, not to maximize viewing opportunities.

For these reasons, we respectfully call on the Federal Government, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada, and Parks Canada to adopt stronger protections that place whale welfare above commercial interests and help make British Columbia a global leader in marine mammal conservation.

Recommended Regulatory Amendments

A long-term vision for whale conservation in British Columbia requires a shift toward a conservation model that prioritizes whale welfare over vessel-based tourism, substantially reducing commercial vessel interactions with whales while expanding land-based viewing, public education, Indigenous stewardship, scientific research, and habitat protection.

The undersigned respectfully request that the Federal Government, in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada, and Parks Canada, implement the following amendments to strengthen whale protection in British Columbia's coastal waters:

1 - Temporary suspension of commercial and recreational gray whale viewing. Prohibit commercial and recreational whale-watching activities targeting gray whales within 1,000 metres throughout British Columbia until scientific monitoring shows sustained population recovery and a significant reduction in mortality events. Gray whales are currently experiencing elevated mortality tied to poor body condition, changing prey availability, and vessel strikes. Eliminating unnecessary disturbance during this period follows the precautionary principle.

2 - Protection of mothers and calves. Prohibit commercial and recreational vessels from intentionally approaching whales travelling with calves under one year of age. When a calf is present, vessels should continue past the minimum approach distance without stopping, lingering, or attempting to observe the animals. The first years of life are critical for nursing, growth, social development, and the transfer of hunting knowledge, so mothers and calves should be given complete protection from disturbance.

3 - Limit the number of commercial vessels. No more than four commercial whale-watching vessels are to observe the same whale or pod at once, regardless of company ownership, to reduce cumulative disturbance and underwater noise.

4 - Standardize minimum viewing distances (Commercial and Recreational). Establish a province-wide minimum approach distance of 400 metres for all whales, regardless of species, with a 1,000-metre exclusion zone for endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.

5 - Limit viewing duration. Restrict individual vessels to a maximum observation period of 30 minutes, and ensure no whale or pod is subject to more than six cumulative hours of commercial viewing per day. 

6 - Mandatory daily quiet periods. Establish a mandatory two-hour period each day during which commercial vessels may not observe whales, allowing uninterrupted time for feeding, hunting, resting, socializing, nursing, and travelling.

7 - Weekly whale rest day. Designate one day each week when commercial whale-watching tours are prohibited throughout British Columbia, reducing chronic disturbance.

8 - Protected feeding and hunting areas. Establish permanent, larger sanctuary zones.

9 - Prohibit encircling. Introduce a legal definition of "encircling" and prohibit vessels from surrounding, boxing in, herding, leap frogging or pinning whales against shorelines, or restricting their natural direction of travel. Commercial vessels may not position themselves in a whale's anticipated path or remain stationary in locations that force whales to alter course to maintain legal separation distances. 

10 - Ecotype identification before approach. Require commercial operators to stop and remain at least one kilometre from all killer whales until ecotype identification is confirmed through accepted methods such as binoculars, photography, or hydrophones, reducing the risk of accidentally disturbing Southern Residents.

11 - Commercial licensing system. Create a provincial licensing program for commercial whale-watching operators, with escalating penalties for repeated violations, including licence suspension, permanent revocation, and jail time.

12 - Modernize the Fisheries Act fines. Amend the Fisheries Act to make marine mammal protection violations ticketable offences, while keeping stronger penalties — including substantial fines, licence suspensions, and criminal prosecution — for serious or repeated violations. A modern ticketing system would improve compliance and let enforcement agencies address infractions more quickly than the current, overly complex court process allows.

13 - Increase marine enforcement. Provide Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Transport Canada with additional funding for year-round, on-the-water enforcement, with dedicated patrol vessels monitoring whale-watching activity throughout the tourism season.

14 - End guaranteed whale sightings. Prohibit advertising or selling guaranteed whale sightings, which create financial incentives for vessels to travel at high speed across large areas, increasing underwater noise and collision risk. Wildlife should never be treated as a guaranteed commercial commodity.

15 - Close confined waterways from all whale-watching. Prohibit whale-watching activities in narrow, confined, or enclosed waterways where whales have limited ability to avoid vessel traffic. This includes inlets, basins, harbours, and any marine waterway with only a single exit or restricted exit routes, helping to reduce disturbance and allow whales to move safely through these sensitive habitats.

16 - Expand land-based wildlife viewing. Increase investment in shoreline viewing platforms, educational interpretation centres, and community science programs, which offer strong educational value without disturbing whales.

17 - Cost effective value added monitoring. Provide long-term support for organizations, Indigenous Guardians, and trained volunteers documenting whale presence, vessel activity, and potential violations — information that is valuable for conservation, research, and enforcement.

Information on the current state of BC’s Whale Populations

Despite decades of research showing that vessel traffic alters whale behaviour, increases stress, masks communication, and disrupts feeding, commercial whale-watching operations continue to pursue whales throughout British Columbia's coastal waters every day.

In 2026 alone, at least 40 gray whales have washed up along the coast of Washington and British Columbia, many emaciated or killed by vessel strikes. The Southern Resident Killer Whale population in the Salish Sea has been driven to near extinction, in part because of the sheer volume of vessels that followed them and prevented them from carrying out natural behaviours in the midst of their populations recovery.

The modern whale-watching industry depends on repeatedly locating, approaching, and following wild whales to generate profit. Individual whales and pods may be observed for 10 or more hours a day as vessels rotate in and out of viewing opportunities. Throughout this, whales are still expected to continue with their natural behaviours.

The industry frequently markets itself as a force for conservation, but conservation is measured by benefits to wildlife, not by marketing or public perception. An activity that depends on repeatedly disturbing wild animals cannot reasonably be called conservation when the evidence suggests it consistently alters behaviour and adds to cumulative stress.

The Government of Canada has already acknowledged that vessel disturbance threatens whales. Regulations have progressively increased minimum approach distances for vulnerable populations, most notably the Southern Resident Killer Whales. These changes recognize that greater distance between vessels and whales benefits whale welfare. The next step is to apply that same precautionary principle to all whale populations, in hopes of preventing them from reaching the same levels of vulnerability as the Southern Residents. 

Perhaps the most intrusive part of commercial whale watching is that vessels continue to observe nursing whales at distances as close as 200 metres, a rule that applies to every whale except Southern Residents. Given the extensive research on the emotional and social depth of whale behaviour, particularly between mothers and calves, this needs to change. Killer whales are among the only mammals besides humans known to practice midwifery and co-parenting among family members. Hunting knowledge, movement patterns, and skills essential for survival are passed down generationally by matriarchs to their offspring and relatives. Giving mothers and calves adequate time and space to learn and practice these behaviours is vital, and the presence of vessels around them at close range must be addressed.

Southern Resident Killer Whales

Today, roughly only 74 Southern Resident Killer Whales remain. Their decline stems from decimated Chinook salmon populations, pollution, underwater noise, habitat degradation, and years of prolonged vessel disturbance from the whale-watching industry. The current state of the Southern Resident Killer Whale population shows the consequences of allowing cumulative human disturbance and environmental degradation to persist for decades.

Historically, Southern Resident Killer Whales have been followed by as many as 80 vessels at once, up to 15 hours a day during summer months. This constant vessel presence interfered with hunting efficiency, acoustic communication, social behaviour, resting, and calf rearing.

In response, Canada implemented substantially larger exclusion zones around Southern Resident Killer Whales — an important acknowledgment that greater distance between whales and vessels benefits whale welfare, particularly for threatened and endangered populations.

Killer Whales

The status of the Transient (Biggs) and Northern Resident Killer Whale population is misrepresented by whale-watching companies that continue to advocate for their viewing. Though not listed as endangered, Transient and Northern Resident Killer Whales are officially listed as threatened under Canada's Species at Risk Act, and they face many of the same pressures as the Southern Residents: rising vessel traffic, underwater noise, pollution, and cumulative disturbance.

Current regulations permit repeated approaches at only 200 metres, allowing vessels to follow these whales for extended periods of over 10 hours per day. Preventing disturbance before impacts become irreversible is consistent with both the precautionary principle and responsible wildlife management.

Gray Whales

With the current state of regulations for both commercial and recreational vessels, combined with climate change and habitat degradation, it is no surprise that gray whales continue to wash ashore injured and emaciated. Gray whales return north to the waters of British Columbia in the summer months, following their journey south to give birth and mate. During their time in the northern Pacific, they consume most of the calories needed for their 15,000-kilometre round-trip journey each year. The presence of gray whales so close to metropolitan hubs like Vancouver Harbour and Burrard Inlet is unusual enough on its own, with speculation that their typical feeding grounds lack adequate resources, forcing them into high-traffic areas to avoid starvation. Furthermore, the surfacing behaviour of gray whales makes it difficult for vessel operators to see them at high speeds, increasing the likelihood of collisions. Even after the events of May 4th in Vancouver Harbour, where a jet-ski operator struck a surfacing gray whale, and near-record numbers of emaciated and injured gray whales washing ashore, whale-watching vessels along Vancouver Island and BC continue to follow them as close as 100 metres.

Given the rising number of vessel strikes, documented mortalities, and evidence of poor body condition, temporary restrictions on commercial and recreational gray whale viewing represent a reasonable, precautionary conservation measure until populations recover.