Orcas surprise ferry passengers in Vancouver’s False Creek

The people aboard a ferry in Vancouver were treated to a rare sight Sunday.

A pod of orcas swam right by the small vessel in False Creek, metres away from Sunset Beach.

The captain behind the wheel, Jack Hemsworth, says the boat was just past the Vancouver Aquatic Centre when he noticed three dorsal fins. The whales were within 10 feet of the ferry.

“It was pretty surreal,” he told CTV News.

He put the vessel into neutral for the creatures’ safety as the passengers, mostly tourists, experienced “all the emotions at once.”

In a video of the encounter posted to social media by False Creek Ferries, the passengers can be heard gasping in awe. “What the f***?” one exclaims. 

“It was pretty lucky,” Hemsworth said. “The passengers were pretty stoked because this never happens.”

It’s uncommon for killer whales to swim right into the city, but Vancouver Aquarium staff told CTV News after a similar sighting in 2019 that the orcas were probably visiting False Creek to hunt for seals in shallow water.

Hemsworth has been driving with False Creek Ferries for five years, and he’s never seen an orca on the job until this weekend.

“It was pretty crazy just to see how big they really are; they were bigger than the boat,” he said.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Abigail Turner