October 4th - Transient orca the T018s and T037As north of Nanaimo!

An exciting morning with reports coming in of orca seen up near Nanoose Bay. No one had searched the area yet so our boats departed at 12pm with sharp eyes and high hopes. It didn’t take too long for Keta to locate two pods of whales traveling together, a total of about 9 whales!

The two pods were the T018s and the T037As, two fairly big pods with fins of all shapes and sizes! The T18’s are run by matriarch T018 “Esperanza” who is estimated to be born around 1955, one of the oldest females we see regularly. She travels her presumed offspring T19, and her grand-whales T19B and T19C. T19B “Galiano” and T19C “Spouter” are two large bulls with huge fins that could one day grow up to 6 feet tall!

The T37As are a pod of 6 whales but eldest female offspring, T37A1 “Inyo”, regularly travels separately from the pod. Mother/Matriarch T37A “Volker” was born in 1994 and already has 5 surviving offspring, including a male calf that was born earlier this year!

We were treated to a suspenseful hunt while on scene with these apex predators, followed by some beautiful spyhops! Here are some of the best photos taken during the tours by marine naturalists Val Watson and Rebeka Pirker.

Jilann LechnerOctober 8, 2019Comment