August 31, 2024, 3:30 pm - T-party with the T002Cs, T049As, and T075Bs!

It was another wonderful afternoon on the water, getting to start our tour by heading towards a group of partying orca not too far from home. These were some of the same whales that we had seen during the morning tours, except that they had met up, and are seemingly very pleased about it. Orca are very social creatures, so it’s common to see lots of excitement from them when they get to spend time with whales outside of their own family group. This afternoon, it was three pods spending time together:

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 (2020)

T049A Nan ♀ (1986)
T049A3 Nat ♂ (2011)
T049A4 Neptune ♂ (2014)
T049A5 Nebula ♀ (2017)
T049A6 Charlie II ♂ (2022)

T075B Pebbles ♀ (1995)
T075B2 Jasper ♀ (2015)
T075B3 Rubble ♂ (2017)
T075B4 (2021)

As far as we know, there isn’t any relationship between these pods. The T002Cs and the T075Bs seem to be enjoying each other’s company since they have been travelling together for the last little while, but the T049As have been mostly alone, so it was exciting to get to see them spending time with some other whales! We call it a T-party when we have multiple pods of orca travelling together like this, especially when they are doing so much activity like today! We were delighted to see the whales playing together and doing things like breaching, tail slapping, and more as they moved through the calm waters.
We spent our hour with these whales before continuing on into the Strait of Georgia to see what else we might be able to find.

At this point, our two vessels spread out to increase our search area, and they ended up coming across a pair of humpbacks each. The covered boat spent some time with Bullet (BCX1658)and Seabird (BCX17774) while the open boat found Split Fluke (BCX1068) and Split Fin (BCZ0298). Both of these sets of whales seemed to be feeding in the area, which lucky for us, meant that we were able to get some great looks at the underside of their tails, making them very easy to ID. The humpbacks in our area are primarily feeding on the Krill and small schooling fish that are abundant in the area. Since they come here just to eat and build up fat reserves for their migration.

In addition to the whales today, we were also excited to see both Harbour Seals and Sea Lions at Stinky Rocks, as well as some bird visitors. There were not only cormorants spending time on the rocks but some harlequin ducks as well! With all of his wildlife watching, we returned to the dock pleased with our experience. Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Lucy Willis captured some amazing photos of the day which can be viewed below!

T075B Pebbles with T002C3 Lucy and T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A big tail slap during the party. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T049A3 Nat breaching with someone else's tail slapping beside him. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky with T075B1 Fifi beside him. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Cartwheeling. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A baby breach from T075B4. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C3 Lucy ad T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B4 appearing to jump on another. . Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C Tas in the lead, followed by T075B2 Fifi. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky's towering dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rock about to break the surface with mom, T002C Tasu and T075B4 behind him. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B Pebbles, T049A Nan and T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C3 Lucy breaking through a wave. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A breaching whale! Photo by Lucy Willis.

A tail flick. Photo by Lucy Willis.

T075B Pebbles. Photo by Lucy Willis.

More tail slapping. Photo by Lucy Willis.

T002C1 Rocky and T049A3 Nat. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Whale watchers in Keta with the orca. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Bullet's dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Seabird's dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Seabird giving a fluke waterfall. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The underside of Seabird's tail. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Seabird diving. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Split Fluke going for a dive. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Fluke waterfall from Split Fluke. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Split Fin's split fin. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Fluke waterfall from Split Fin. Photo by Lucy Willis.

The beautiful white underside of Split Fin's tail. Photo by Lucy Willis.

A cormorant on the rocks. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Harbour Seals getting hit by a wave. Photo by Lucy Willis.

A cute Harlequin Duck. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Steller Sea Lion watching us from the water. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Cormorants at the Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Aly Kohlman.