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WARNING: This story contains graphic images of a dead whale.
A dead humpback whale that was struck by a B.C. Ferries vessel has been towed to a Squamish Nation village for a cultural ceremony.
The whale, identified as Notcho (BCX1700), was seen floating off Gambier Island on Monday night after being struck a week earlier in the same area.
Ferry passengers say they felt a collision with a whale on Oct. 18 while travelling on the Queen of Surrey, travelling between Langdale Terminal on the Sunshine Coast and Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said the collision happened between Grace Point and Keats Island.
Aspen Wing and her son watched as a humpback whale was struck by a ferry leaving the Langdale terminal on the Sunshine Coast on Oct. 18, 2026. (Submitted by Aspen Wing)
Paul Cottrell, a member of the DFO’s marine mammal response team, said they found the whale on Tuesday and confirmed it was the same whale that was struck.
He said Notch’s fluke and peduncle were missing from the rest of its body.
The DFO and the Canadian Coast Guard have now towed the whale’s bloated carcass from West Bay near Gambier Island to the village of Xwemelch’stn (Capilano) in West Vancouver.
Chairperson Sxwíxwtn Wilson Williams of the Squamish Nation said whales are considered sacred relatives with profound cultural and spiritual importance.
“There’s a deep connection historically, [and] having whales coming back through our waters means a lot to our people,” Williams said.
The dead humpback whale was found by the Grace Islands off B.C.’s coast, according to the Marine Education and Research Society. (Emily Ashton)
The Canadian Coast Guard contacted Williams about the whale, and the Squamish Nation quickly assembled a team.
“We have an elder that has travelled down from the far west of [Vancouver] Island that has experience in harvesting whales,” Williams said.
Whale skin and bones can be used for regalia, he explained, and could even be used in part of education and school curricula.
“We’re looking at providing time for community members to come down, maybe having the little ones’ school come down as a field trip,” Williams said.
The dead whale is seen floating on the shore near Burrard Inlet off Squamish Nation’s Xwemelch’stn (Capilano) village. (Squamish Nation)
Notcho is now at the the village on the shore in Burrard Inlet.
“A lot of people that reached out today want to go down and just share a song, drum, and sing and share a prayer,” Williams said on Thursday.
Chairperson Sxwíxwtn Wilson Williams of the Squamish Nation is seen on Oct. 29, 2026. (Alanna Kelly/CBC)
The Squamish Nation is planning to hold a private cultural ceremony, and is asking the public for privacy.
“Being on site was challenging today because our hearts go out to the loss of life, and you can feel the power of such a beautiful mammal,” Williams said.
The DFO is conducting a necropsy and collecting samples to determine the whale’s exact cause of death, and the results are expected to take months.
