August 28th - Adventuring all along the Strait of Georgia
On August 28th we adventured South to view a humpback in the Strait of Georgia! We travelled through the Gulf Islands before crossing Active Pass and into an area known as the Apex, where the Canadian and American borders meet. After we were in the Strait we were greeted by a solo Humpback racing through the waters. This whale was MMX0101 - “Strike”. Strike has a very distinct, rounded dorsal fin, as well as some really neat white markings on the fluke’s underside. On the left side, Strike has a white patch that almost looks like the Mickey Mouse head! For most of our morning tour Strike was happily lunge feeding just below the surface… but just as one of our boats started to pull away she surprised us with not one, not two, but three breaches back to back! Strike then let out a happy little blow before going down for a big dive and a wave goodbye to our boats.
In the afternoon we received word of Orca off of the Sunshine Coast. We started to cross the Strait of Georgia before visiting the T101’s just off of Keats Island. They were skirting the coast as they travelled northwards. The T101’s consists of four individuals: Matriarch T101 - “Reef”, and her three sons T101A - “Rush”, T101B - “Lagoon”, and T102 - “Beardslee”. Typically Reef’s three sons would be numbered T101A, T101B, and T101C for her first, second and third children respectively. Beardslee was originally spotted by himself, hence his number not falling into the traditional numbering system. Beardslee is the oldest of the three sons; we believe he was born around 1984. His brothers Rush and Lagoon were born in 1993 and 1997. The Matriarch, Reef, is suspected to have been born around 1969, making her at least 50 years old!
One of our boats, Keta, was extra lucky during our afternoon trip. They departed the harbour a bit late due to an accident on one of our main highways before heading towards the Sunshine Coast. Along the way they spotted two groups of Humpback whales! Unfortunately we were unable to ID any of these four individuals.
MMX0101 - “Strike”. Photo by Ryan Uslu (10:30).
MMX0101 - “Strike”. Photo by Ryan Uslu (10:30).
T102 - “Beardslee. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).
T101 - “Reef” with one of her sons right along side. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).
T101 - “Reef” (left) and her son T101B - “Lagoon” (right). Notice the intricate scaring on Lagoon’s saddle patch, making him easy to ID. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).
These two are so similar! T101A - “Rush” (left) and T101B - “Lagoon” (right). They are very close in age as well as size. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).
T102 - “Beardslee” leading the charge! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).
T102 - “Beardslee”. Photo by Ryan Uslu (3:30).
MMX0101 - “Strike”. Photo by Ryan Uslu (10:30).
Join us on a tour today! To book, please call us at 250-667-5177 or continue on our website to book online! We guarantee that you’ll see a whale (orca or humpback), or your next trip is FREE! Happy travels!