Our afternoon tour was packed full of incredible sights and 2 different whale species! We are often asked “Where are the whales?” or “When will we see the whales?” to which we tell people that our range is vast and the whales can be found anywhere in that range. We don’t however, expect to end up in the Vancouver Harbour. Another frequently asked question is “Do whales avoid boats” and in our experience, the majority seem unfazed. Today we ended up going past the Lions Gate bridge towards the Vancouver harbour. It was the furthest we’ve ever been into the city by boat and was such an interesting experience. Elkugu and her kids seemed completely unfazed by the multitude of passenger vessels, cargo ships and even cruise ships as they meandered through the city waterway even grabbing some fast food (a harbour seal)!

T124A2 Elkugu ♀ (2001)
T124A2A Agafia ♂ (2013)
T124A2B Litton ♀ (2016)

Elkugu is a successful matriarch who has managed to keep both her calves alive so far despite her being such a young mother. Some of her success can be linked back to her hunting prowess. Our boats had arrived on scene shortly after a hunt and feeding. The boats on scene prior seemed to not even know the family was hunting which is a good indication that it happened relatively quickly. The only real evidence that a hunt had even occurred was an eagle leaving the scene with a part of the seal in his talons. Orca are expert hunters but unfortunately, their hunting tactics are often misunderstood by the general public and labelled as “torture”. Having seen many hunts in the past, we often see the whales try to take down prey as quickly and efficiently as possible. Slapping prey out of the water, hitting them with their rostrums and making it difficult for the animal to breathe look brutal and unnecessary but these are all necessary actions if the orca wants to eat and survive. At the end of the day, there is no orca grocery stores!

Our naturalist on Cascadia (Aly) was particularly thrilled to see this family on Tuesday. On Sunday, Aly was whale watching in Telegraph Cove which is on the northern side of Vancouver Island and the orca that were spotted that day were the T124A2’s, Elkugu and her family. Seeing them around 48 hours later in Vancouver was shocking and exciting. We often tell people orca can travel over 100 miles a day but to see it in person was something else. From Telegraph cover to Vancouver is roughly 184 nautical miles (211 miles or 340 Km). The distance alone is impressive, but when you factor in that this family travelled all that way while still managing to rest and eat you realize just how important it is for these animals to have endless space to roam. You may be wondering if the orcas were just travelling fast in between resting and feeding and the answer is likely not. Orcas do not sleep in the same way that terrestrial mammals do. Rather they only rest one half of their brain at a time, the resting side will even have the eye closed! The awake side will have an eye open and this allows the orca to continue swimming! When one side is rested they can switch to the other side. When resting, all members of the family will rest at the same time, usually the easiest way to tell that an orca is in a resting state is because they are swimming close together and surfacing a lot for breaths. If you’re thinking swimming? Yes, swimming! They continue to swim even when resting, we don’t often see our orca stop or sit at the surface of the water for an extended period of time.

Both boats also briefly spent time with some of our larger whale friends the humpbacks. While we saw different whales only one whale was identified, Zig Zag (BCX1193). Zig Zag comes by her name honestly as she is rarely predictable in figuring out where she will pop up for a breath. Today was no different as she suddenly surfaced roughly 30 feet from the boat jump-scaring everyone on board. Sometimes we have to wonder if the whales do this on purpose! Our other mystery whale was also unpredictable in its movements but was popping up quite far from the boat. While we didn’t get an ID we don’t mind. We love wild whales doing whatever they want!

The fun didn’t end with our whales, before we even left the dock we were treated to a very rare sight for us when a harbour seal popped up with a giant pacific octopus in its mouth. The giant Pacific octopus is not only the largest octopus, but also the longest-lived octopus so this was a substantial meal for our harbour seal. It was interesting to watch the circle of life happen before our eyes today. First with the seal eating an octopus and later our orca and eagle eating a separate seal. You can see photos from our unique encounter below. All photos today are by naturalists Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert.

July 2, 2024, 3:30 pm - Whales in the big city

© Vancouver Island Whale Watch 2018-2024. All Rights Reserved.