June 15, 2024, 3:30pm - A double species afternoon

We had a single boat returning to search the Salish Sea for the afternoon, hoping to catch up again with the whales that were seen on the morning trip, so we headed to their last location and were able to pick the same whales up again! It was still the T123s travelling with Tyndall and her calf, as well as the T071B siblings.

T071B1 Zengo ♀ (2013)
T071B2 Tasli/Nemo ♂ (2018)

T086A3 Tyndall ♀ (2011)
T086A3A (2024)

T123 Sidney ♀ (~1985)
T123A Stanley ♂ (2000)
T123C Lucky ♀ (2012)
T123D Darcy ♀ (2018)

They were mostly up to the same as the morning, travelling north together though the Strait. Since the orca that we watch on our tours are primarily Mammal Eaters, they have to constantly be on the move to remain successful when hunting. They are hunting things like Harbour Seals, Sea Lions, and other ceteceans, which are all very intelligent in their own right. If the orca stay in one spot for too long, their prey gets more and more on edge and will be extra cautious, lowering the usually high success rate of the pods hunts.

With so many small mouths to feed here, keeping that success rate high would be very important! After spending some time travelling with these whales, started the journey back across the strait, where we came across some humpback whales! The first one we found was very easy to ID since he has not only a very distinct dorsal fin, but also distinct tail. Unfortunately, the reason that this whale, Ocular (BCX1705), is easy to ID is becuase he has very deep, obvious scarring from a previous entanglement event. Thankfully Ocular survived and seems happy and healthy whenever we are lucky enough to see him on the water, but it is still heartbreaking that he had to go through the ordeal.

We continued on, leaving Ocular to his feeding dives, and came across what can only be described as “Humpback Soup”! We call it this when you can look all around you and see the blows from whales in the distance. Today we were able to ID and spend time with the following humpback whales while we were just east of Thrasher Rock: Valiant (BCX1773), Two Spot (BCZ0432), Beak (BCX1606), Olympus (BCX2075), Prowler (BCX1660), Iota (BCX1416 calf 2021), Coyote (BCX0837 calf 2021), and one mystery whale that we are still trying to figure out from their unique dorsal fin!

These whale appeared to be feeding in the area, lifting their tails to help propel them deeper into the water column where their food was waiting for them. Sometimes these dives can last a while, up to 45 minutes if the whales really wanted, but lucky for us it was much shorter than that today. Plus, with so many whales around there was almost always one group spending time at the surface, giving us non-stop whale viewing!

All good things must come to an end though, and such was the case today when we had to leave humpback land and start the journey back to Nanaimo. We had time for one last stop at Stinky Rocks, where we got our daily dose of Pinnipeds! There was plenty of the big Steller Sea Lions hauled out on the rocks, as well as some of their smaller cousins, the Harbour Seals on the smaller rocks just across a small channel.

After this stop, it didn’t take long before we found ourselves back in the Nanaimo Harbour, just as the setting sun was starting to paint the skies. It was an amazing trip with lots of wildlife, and lots of great photos captured by the onboard marine naturalist Aly Kohlman!

T086A3A with the tip of their mother T086A3 Tyndall’s dorsal fin visible.

Ocular diving, a deep notch in his peduncle visible from entanglement.

The top of Ocular’s fluke, scarring from entanglement visible.

Male Steller sea lions are always so imposing!

A sea Lions nose and back sticking out of the calm water.

Look at how fuzzy these Harbour seals look!

Jilann LechnerJune 15, 2024WhalesComment