September 11th - T18's, Mammoth, and Split Fluke!

It was an amazing day to spend in the Strait of Georgia spending some time with two humpback whales: Mammoth and Split Fin, and then a pod of Transient Orca, the T018s!

The two humpbacks that we saw travelling together today are both examples of how humans can effect the wildlife in the area as both show scarring from ships and fishing gear. Did you know that about 50% of the humpback whales in British Columbias waters have signs of entanglement or vessel strikes? Its a pretty crazy number but luckily it seems that these two are doing okay! We watched them for about an hour going down for feeding dives showing off their flukes in front of the Vancouver skyline.

Split fin (left) and Mammoth (right) going down for a dive. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher.

Mammoth has marks from a propeller just behind their dorsal fin, shown here. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher.

In the afternoon we heard word of Orca in the middle of the Strait of Georgia not too far from where we saw the humpback whales in the morning so we headed that way and found the T018’s who were spread out in groups of two hunting and travelling. The pod consists of T018 “Esperanza”, T019 “Nootka/Mooya”, T019B “Galiano”, and T019C “ Spouter”.

T019C “Spouter” on the left with his grandmother T018 “Esperanza” travelling with him on the right. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher.

Do you know how the scientific names help us keep track of the lineage of these animals? This pod is a great example of it. When research was first beginning on this population of orca all the ones that they saw got a number designated to them. In the case of this pod they saw T018 and T019 travelling together and gave them those numbers (the “T” stands for transient). At the time their relation wasn’t known but we now know that T019 is T018’s daughter. Usually the first known offspring from a matriarch would be given a letter designation in the order they are born (A, B, C, etc.) but as the whales were first seen with eachother she didn’t get this letter. There are a few other examples of the older offspring of a matriarch getting their own number (ex. T101 and T102) but T019s sons did end up getting the right letters. Thats what the “B” and “C” in their names stand for. Galiano was the second offspring from T019 and Spouter the third. If one of these boys had been a female he could have more offspring named after them carrying on the family name. after the letter we would go back to numbers again, alternating between the two as the generations go on. So after a few generations the scientific names can get really complicated, and that’s when the nicknames become useful!

A classic west coast scene: T019B “Galiano” travelling through the Strait with the skyline of Vancouver behind him. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher.

Humpbacks don’t have this sort of systematic naming so we have to rely on our guides and memory to figure out who their mom would be!

Spouter (left) with his mom T019 “Nootka/Mooya” (right). Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher.

Hopefully you learned a little something about whale naming in the Salish Sea and enjoyed all the photos along the way as well!