It was a beautiful morning as we had our semi-covered vessel Kula leave the dock in search of whales. Lucky for us, we didn’t have to go very far before we came across some! We were passing through Gabriola Pass, a narrow passageway between the South end of Gabriola Island, and the North End of Valdes Island when something caught our eye. At first, it was the splashing but then we started to see the tall black dorsal fin of orca cutting through the water. We had found ourselves hunting Biggs Orca! We knew that they were transient/biggs orca since we saw them hunting a Harbour Seal. As we spent more time with these whales we were able to determine that it was the T036A1s and T046B1s partaking in the hunt. That means the following whales were present:

These five whales seemed to be wrapping up the actual hunt as we found them since we saw them travelling with the leftover seal hanging out of their mouth, but lucky for us they must have been pretty excited with their success since we got to watch them celebrate their hunt for nearly the entire hour that we spent with them! This celebration included a fair amount of surface activity, with spy hops and tail slaps, and Tierna even “moonwalked” which was pretty exciting to see! We call in moonwalking when they go backwards through the water instead of doing a typical surface with forward momentum.

It’s usually pretty interesting when you find a group of whales hunting since this is one of the times that we see them with more surface activity than normal. They will also tend to have more activity during socialization events, so it might have been a little bit of both with these two pods together.

No matter why we were seeing it, we are always excited to see the whales enjoying themselves. We also appreciate how much energy it takes to do these celebrations, given that they are moving their huge bodies around in such spectacular ways! These younger whales and females may weigh up to 8,000 pounds, so you can imagine that it takes a lot to keep those massive bodies moving. That’s also why successful hunts are so important! Each of these whales requires around 500 pounds of food to be consumed every day to keep their energy levels up and avoid eating into their fat reserves. For this group of 5, that’s a lot of seals that need to become snacks given they weigh up to 300 pounds each. When a hunt is successful, all members of the pod will share the meal, dividing it up so everyone gets their share.

Soon, it was time to leave these whales to their day, and we continued through Gabriola Pass and started searching for wildlife in the Strait of Georgia. Before heading too far out into the more open water of the Strait, we stopped quickly at one of our favourite wildlife spots, Stinky Rocks! Here we typically see our pinnipeds or flipper-footed animals. This is the Seals and Sea Lions! They are very consistent on where they spend time out of the water, at their haul-out sites. Research shows that the Harbour Seals, in particular, are very loyal to one site and tend to not venture further than 10 miles away while fishing, and will return to the same rocks to haul out every time. The Sea Lions will return to the same rocks as well, but they do so seasonally, with the winter months spent in the same areas in BC, and in the summer they will head out to their breeding grounds, further north or south of here.

Today we were lucky that we got to see both species of pinnipeds here, and there were even some very young Harbour Seal Pups in the mix! So cute!

From Stinky, we headed out into the Strait of Georgia and started searching north on our way back to Nanaimo. We spotted the blow of a humpback whale as we got to the Northern side of Gabriola Island, just out past Entrance Island. As we approached, we got to see the whale lift their tail high out of the water, letting us ID this whale as Incognito (BCX2053)! Incognito was feeding in the area, doing long dives and surfacing very sporadically, due to the direction changes of chasing down prey underwater. They are diving to the depths (usually around 100-200 feet) where the krill and schooling fish spend their days. Interestingly, these small prey species undergo a daily migration through the water column and so the depth changes as the day goes on! Since Incognito was very focused on feeding we left him to it and continued to our last stop of the day at the Gabriola Bluffs.

Here we got to see the nesting cormorants that are painting the cliffs with their guano, using it to hold their nests in place. These birds seem unassuming at first, but they are quite beautiful birds; with their black feathers full of colourful iridescence when the sun hits them just right. They are also impressive divers, being able to reach depths of 120 feet under the surface in their search for fish.

Here we also got to see the young speckled gull chicks in their nesting cave. These young birds are becoming a staff favourite to spot since they are so cute and fluffy! We are suckers for the baby animals, no matter what size!

Finally, it came time to return to the dock and conclude the tour. What an amazing morning it was! Photos from this morning’s tour were taken by the onboard naturalist Lucy Willis

July 18, 2024, 10:30 am - The T036A1s and T046B1s Travelling together and Incognito the Humpback

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