Around 200 Dolphins Caught on Video Playing Alongside a Vessel in British Columbia, Canada

A dolphin pod was caught on video playing and swimming alongside a B.C. Ferries vessel in British Columbia, Canada, it was reported on Monday, November 21.

Simone Thom, who works in catering, was aboard the ship and just gazing out to sea when the pod suddenly appeared.

It is during this moment Thom grabbed her mobile phone and recorded the spectacular sight that rarely occurs and documented.

Dolphin Pod Playing Video

Thom has seen orcas or killer whales in the past while working on B.C. Ferries but one of her best wildlife encounters involved the large pod of dolphin which she estimated to be around 200 when her vessel was sailing on the Salish Orca between Comox and Powell River, according to Pique News Magazine.

The pod was reportedly navigating their way through the waves together.

The ferry worker said she the sighting was cool and something that she has always wanted to see, as cited by the magazine.

Although the ferry see whales almost daily, seeing dolphins was exhilarating, adds Thom, who also uploaded the video on Facebook Watch after recording the dolphin incident at 11:00 a.m. local time last Tuesday, November 15.

Thom said she went to bed after uploading the footage and woke up the next day only to see that the short clip went viral on social media, with people started noticing the video, with at least 850 likes when she last checked on Tuesday night and around 3,000 likes the day after.

Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin

While Thom has not talked to any experts but an undisclosed person suggested what she saw on that day were white-sided dolphins, which are known to travel in large numbers.

The NOAA Fisheries said that Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus) can weigh between 400 to 500 pounds and grow a length of up to nine feet with a lifespan of at least 22 years.

The dolphin species are endemic to the temperate and cooler subpolar waters in the North Atlantic Ocean; where it has a population distribution in the cold waters of the Atlantic, ranging from Svalbard, Ireland, Greenland, Europe, Barents Sea, the Azores, and the Gulf of Maine.

In spite of the remote habitats of the L. acutus, the NOAA Fisheries said it is still not safe from threats such as entanglement, ocean noise, and hunting.

Related Dolphin Pod Incident

In December 2018, CBC News posted a related incident similar to the recent Powell River dolphin pod sighting in British Columbia where approximately 200 dolphins were spotted at a B.C. ferry traveling from Comox to Horseshoe Bay.

Passengers of the 2018 dolphin pod incident were made aware of the incident when the ferry captain came on the PA system to announce that a large pod of dolphins was swimming in front of their vessel.

The marine mammals were reportedly playing, jumping, and racing during that time.