June 21st - T-Party with the T65A's, T36A's, T124A's and T77A!

On June 21st we made our way to a report of a T-party in the middle of the Strait of Georgia! A T-party is what its called when there is a large group of transient orca gathered together. in this case there was three pods together and one lone male hanging out in the outskirts of the party.

How many whales can you count? We think 9! Photo by Rebeka Pirker.

The morning trip found these guys milling in the middle of the Strait being very vocal and playful as the pods interacted together. We got to witness a ton of surface activity including tail slaps, spy hops, and even some small breaches! Towards the end of the trip they started travelling up north, and we had to leave them.

When we left in the afternoon trip the whales had continued up north and made it all the way to Howe Sound! we saw them again at the bottom of Bowen Island and travelled with them up into the mouth of the Sound. Once in the sound they did a very commonly seen behaviour when entering the area; they spread out. This is thought to be a hunting technique used to cover more ground in a narrow area like this. We travelled with the group spread across the channel until we reached the bottom of Gambier Island where we left them for the day.