April 1st - T Party in the Strait of Georgia!

What an amazing start the season! Our team ventured out on the afternoon of April 1st to run some routine safety drills and were lucky enough to witness several pods of orca nearby. In the Strait of Georgia were at least 3 pods of transient killer whales and they were hungry! We watched them work with their family members in exhausting a large sea lion, swimming circles around it and forcing it underwater. The seagulls were hovering above, waiting for their part of the kill, but just when we thought it was over we’d see the sea lion surface and catch a breath. What a fight to survive!

Meanwhile, 50 feet away another pod of transient orca were busy socializing, clearly not concerned about having lunch. There was a very young calf in this pod who was spending lots of time at the surface with its mom. At one point the mom came up under the calf and pushed the calf along with its rostrum! It was a strange behaviour to witness, only leaving us to wonder more about the complex social lives of orcas.

Unfortunately, on our tour on April 2nd the whales didn’t show up for us, but we still had a wonderful, sunny day exploring the Gulf Islands and seeing bald eagles and sea lions. All photos were taken by marine naturalist Rodrigo Menezes