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The dolphins displayed short- to moderate-length stocky beaks, and were generally light grey to almost black on the back and sides, fading to white on the belly.

The location of the sighting is about 1,000 kilometres north of the typical range of common bottlenose dolphins off the west coast of North America. Over the years, there have been occasional sightings and strandings of the species in Washington state, but nothing to match this latest congregation off B.C.

Most prior sightings of false killer whales in B.C. have involved small groups of about a dozen animals travelling southern inland waters. One individual known as Willy, or Westshore Willy, made his home in local waters, including the port at Roberts Bank, from 1990 to 2003 and may have been the last remaining member of a group that wandered into B.C. waters in 1987.

Chester was a very young false killer whale rescued by the Vancouver Aquarium at Chesterman Beach in Tofino in 2014. The animal died in captivity in 2017.

This sighting of common bottlenose dolphins and false killer whales follows a warming trend in the eastern North Pacific from 2013 to 2016 that brought unusual species northward, according to the paper. The trend appeared to continue into July with temperatures up to about 1.7 Celsius warmer throughout the North Pacific.

In March this year, Postmedia reported two other unusual sightings by Halpin off B.C.’s west coast — a swordfish, on Sept. 5, 2017, about 37 kilometres from Brooks Peninsula, and a loggerhead turtle on Feb. 22, 2015, about 83 kilometres west of Tofino.

Canada’s exclusive economic zone in the Pacific extends 370 kilometres off the B.C. coast.

lpynn@postmedia.com

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