On August 16 our boats located 6 different Humpbacks!

In the morning we saw Heather and Raptor as well as Orion and Prowler. In the afternoon, Fallen Knight was spotted with her new calf! This is the first time our company has spotted Fallen Knight with her calf, and we suspect she is actually a first time mother! Fallen Knight has a very distinct fluke, with the right half curving inwards significantly. This deformation could have been caused by nutritional issues as a calf, a birth defect, or have been the result of some sort of entanglement.

BCX0915 - “Fallen Knight”. Note how curved the right side of her fluke is. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher (3:30).

Entanglement for humpbacks is a very serious issue - they are so large that they do not notice small objects such as the line of a prawn or crab trap and just keep on swimming after coming into contact with the line. This line can then become entangled in their baleen or around their fins, which can lead to lacerations and serious health issues.

We also located the T18’s during the afternoon tour. This pod consists of four members: matriarch T18 - “Esperanza”, T19 - “Nootka”, T19B - “Galiano”, and T19C - “Spouter”. This is an interesting pod because our typical numbering system was not followed. T18 is presumed to be the mother of T19, so typically her (T19’s) number would be T18A, representing the first child of T18. This is how T19B and T19C earned their numbers as the second and third born children of T19. Both T18 and T19 are older whales (T18 was born around 1955, and T19 was born around 1965) who’s ages were estimated based off of their body size when they were first documented. Differentiating orca based off of their individual markings did not begin until the 1970’s, so any whales born before that point have had their ages inferred. Due to their ages we are unsure if T18 had previous calves before T19, and their mother-daughter relationship has yet to be scientifically confirmed.