We started out our morning with a vague report of orca that were southbound. Right off the dock all three boats headed towards the report and did a thorough search in the waves trying to find the whales. We were unsuccessful so we made our way south hoping to stumble on someone else. As our zodiacs approached Dodd narrows we got a message saying the whales we were looking for were just ahead of us! Sure enough, we found them almost immediately afterwards. Our luck didn’t stop there as the Georgia Straight was relatively wavy but these whales were making their way to our southern Gulf Islands which is sheltered and protected from the wind so we often get relatively flat water. This was the case today as we made our way into the southern Gulf Islands to spend time with the T077s:

T077 Asja ♀ (~1981)
T077C Neftali ♂ (2006)
T077D Alycon ♀ (2009)
T077E Misneach (2016)

Transient/Bigg’s Killer whales typically travel in small family groups where the mom is the matriarch and the rest of the family is made up of her calves. Males tend to stay with mom their entire lives while females leave when they have a calf or 2 of their own. Last summer however this family split up. Originally Asja and Misneach went and hung out with another family in Puget Sound while Alycon and her brother Neftali roamed around together. A second split occurred when Alycon met up with her aunt Pebbles and Neftali went to hang out with a young lone male. At the time Pebbles and her family were going through some hardships. Alycon’s cousin Jasper had just had a calf. The birth of this calf shocked many as Jasper was only 8 at the time and females typically don’t have their first calf until 13-15 years old. Unfortunately, this new calf did not survive long but luckily Jasper was surrounded by family in her time of grief including Alycon.

It was nice to see the family reunited this summer as they travelled together in the calm water. Travel is our most witnessed behaviour with the orca we see. Because we can ID orca so efficiently it’s often assumed that we continuously see the same families and while sometimes this is true, more often than not, we have no idea who we are pulling up to. Orca can travel over 100 miles a day and this is something we see frequently with our Bigg’s killer whales as they forage in a vast range that extends from Alaska to California.

After spending time with the orca we all made our way into wavier waters in an attempt to find a humpback. 1 boat was successful in his endeavor though the humpback wasn’t interested in surface time as it did long deep dives, likely feeding at depth. Some days we have very playful and interactive whales while other days we have whales that are busy doing their own thing. That’s one of the best parts of our jobs though, we get to hang out with wild whales and those whales get to do whatever they want! Luckily this whale gave us just enough of a look at their fluke to determine it was Mammoth/Ocean (BCX1710)!

Before the tour ended we also made a stop at Stinky Rock where our Stellar Sea Lions like to hang out, as well as our harbour seals. Today there was a particularly photogenic bald eagle sitting pretty for us as well. Hopefully, our American guests enjoyed a symbol of their patriotism on July 4th!

Enjoy all of the photos taken by the Naturalists Aly Kohman, Hayleigh Hilbert, and Lucy Willis below!