The Nanaimo Bulletin reports that a pod of dolphins showed up in Departure Bay this morning.

Nanaimo residents travelling along Departure Bay caught a rare site Wednesday morning, when a pod of about 30 Pacific White Sided dolphins paid a visit to the bay. (…)

The Pacific White Sided dolphin is about two metres long, gray and black in colour with a little bit of light shading.

“They’re the most common true dolphin in British Columbia waters,” Ford said.

The dolphins are often mistaken for Dall’s Porpoise – which are same size, but are all black with a white patch on the side.

Dall’s Porpoises are more commonly sighted in local waters, but unlike dolphins tend to travel in smaller groups of two or three, Ford said.

It’s not uncommon to see groups of two or three hundred dolphins off Gabriola, he said.

(Emphasis mine.)

Wow, I’ve never seen that many dolphins off Gabriola — have you? Is it just that I’m not getting out of bed early enough?

[The article quoted above is no longer available on the newspaper's website.]

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