September 27, 2024 - Humpbacks everywhere and the formation of a T-party!

It was a beautiful morning as two of our vessels cruised out of Nanaimo to start searching the beautiful waters of the Salish Sea to see what they had in store for us today. It didn’t take us long before we had our first encounter with a pair of humpback whales just outside of the Nanaimo Harbour: Stripe (BCZ0004) and Mathematician (BCY0785) travelling together.

These two were spending a lot of time at the surface, only disappearing under the glassy waters for a few minutes at a time before reappearing close by. This likely means that the food that they were after — Krill and small schooling fish — were likely close to the surface today. They were circling near the south side of Snake Island doing these feeding dives. Each time they dove, they lifted their tails high out of the air allowing for easy identification. With them needing nearly a tonne of food each day, it’s not surprising that feeding is what we catch them doing the vast majority of the time. We counted ourselves lucky to spend so much time at the surface with these two gentle giants before it was time for us to continue our search of these rich waters.

Both vessels started to head across the Strait of Georgia, but both were stopped by a towering blow in the distance; more humpbacks! The semi-covered boat had a pair of whales: Two Spot (BCZ0432) and Raccoon (BCX1233) while the open boat spent time with Sage (BCX2073).

Both of these sets of whales were interesting with their surface activity, with Two Spot and Raccoon seeming to be socializing at the surface, travelling fast yet very close together, lifting their tails with each surface. Sage on the other hand was being a little more gentle, which is a good thing since they were getting a bit curious about the boat. They spent a few surfaces slowly rising and falling just below the surface beside the boat, before continuing on their way, and so did our boats!

Their goal was the White Islets, a bit of a wildlife hotspot. Today was no different, with the boisterous Steller Sea Lions perched high on the rocky cliffs, and a pile of the more subdued Harbour Seals on the smaller rocks. In addition to these entertaining pinnipeds, there was also plenty of bird action along these shores, with cormorants, gulls, and various shorebirds making an appearance.

On the way to the White Islets, the open boat found one last pair of whales for a single surface, but luckily it was enough to ID them as Anvil (BCZ0410) and her calf! These two were also focused more on food, so we continued on our way. Two more solo whales made an appearance between here and the white islets: Octo (BCX1920) and Meqé (BCZ0492)! We got a single surface with both of these food-focused whales before continuing on our way.

While at the White Islets, our boats got word from another nearby whale-watching vessel that they had come across a pod of orca, so we decided to head over to get a glimpse of these iconic whales. It turned out to be a very fast-moving pod of whales today, the T100s.

T100 Hutchins ♀ (1979)
T100C Laurel ♂ (2002)
T100E Tharaya ♀ (2009)
T100F Estrella ♀ (2014)

These whales were moving faster than usual, allowing us to get some great looks at them since more of their bodies were coming out of the water than usual to help reduce the drag. Soon enough, it became apparent why: there were more orca on the horizon! The orca to join up with the T100s were the T035As and a young troublemaker: T065A5 Indy!

T035A Lester ♀ (1998)
T035A1 Opal ♀ (2010)
T035A2 Topaz ♂ (2013)
T035A3 Garnet (2018)
T035A4 ♂ (2022)

T065A5 Indy ♂ (2014)

Once they met us, celebrations ensued! It’s usually an exciting affair when pods of orca meet up since they are very social animals and like to interact. Since they are always travelling in the same groups, seeing other pods gives them some fresh faces to spend time with. There can also be opportunities to breed! Always travelling with your own family can put a damper on things in this regard, so meeting with other pods is the only way that breeding will occur in the Biggs Orca population. Although it didn’t seem like there was any breeding going on today, they were sure happy to see each other, with the whales breaching, tail slapping, and slapping their pectoral fins on the water. It was a breathtaking sight.

Just as it was time for us to leave this newly formed T-Party, we caught sight of a couple of humpback whales in the distance. We were able to snap a couple of photos of these whales and determined them to be Niagara (BCY0057) and Big Momma (BCY0324). These two seemed to be heading in the direction of the orca, but unfortunately, we couldn’t stick around to see the outcome. Since they are both fully grown adult humpbacks, we know that they weren’t at risk of any harm from this small gathering of orca.

We finally made it back to Nanaimo, delighted with all the amazing encounters we had throughout the day. Please enjoy all of the photos from these moments included below, taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson and Vanessa Vereschahen.

Stripe going for a dive. Photo by Val Watson.

Stripe and his blow. Photo by Val Watson.

Mathematician diving with Stripe beside him. Photo by Val Watson.

Stripe (left) and Mathematician (right) surfacing side-by-side. Photo by Val Watson.

Mathematicians tail with Stripe beside him. Photo by Val Watson.

Mathematician’s tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The underside of Stripe’s tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Raccoon (back) and Two Spot (front) diving together. Photo by Val Watson.

Two Spot giving a fluke waterfall. Photo by Val Watson.

The underside of Two Spot’s tail. Photo by Val Watson.

Raccoon (back) and Two Spot (front). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Raccoon (left) and Two Spot (right) diving together. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sage just barely breaking the surface. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sage going away from the boat. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sage showered in their own blow. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sage making a fluke waterfall. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The underside of Sage’s tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The underside of Octo’s tail. Photo by Val Watson.

Octo going for a dive. Photo by Val Watson.

The underside of Meqe’s tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Anvil lifting her tail for a dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Some confused looking Steller Sea Lions. Photo by Val Watson.

Itchy Steller Sea Lion. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Steller Sea Lions in the water. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

This one kept an eye on us as they swam by. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T100C Laurel surfacing quickly. Photo by Val Watson.

T035A Lester surfacing during the party. Photo by Val Watson.

T035A2 Topaz has a dorsal lean. Photo by Val Watson.

T035A Lester surfacing with her newest calf: T035A4. Photo by Val Watson.

T035A Lester and her calf. Photo by Val Watson.

T035A Lester next to her calf’s tail. Photo by Val Watson.

T100F Estrella (right), T100E Tharaya (left) next to a tail. Photo by Val Watson.

A big upside-down cartwheel. Photo by Val Watson.

Can you spot the second orca in this photo? Photo by Val Watson.

T035A1 Opal breaking the surface. Photo by Val Watson.

You can see how much water is moved with this tail slap. Photo by Val Watson.

A mini tail flick beside T100 Hutchins and t100E Tharaya. Photo by Val Watson.

T100E Tharaya breaching. Photo by Val Watson.

Happy T100s! T100E Tharaya breaching. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T100C Laurel surfacing in the sun. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T100E Tharaya in behind T100F Estrella. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T100F Estrella’s eye patch with T100E Tharaya and T100 Hutchins in behind her. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T065A5 Indy. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A tail slap beside another whale exhaling. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T035A Lester beside a tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Group photo with T035A3 Garnet, T065A5 Indy, T035A2 Topaz and T100E Tharaya. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Big Mama (left) and Niagara (right) coming in to spoil the orca’s fun. Photo by Val Watson.

A Great Blue Heron taking flight from our dock. Photo by Val Watson.

Jilann LechnerSeptember 27, 2024WhalesComment