June 14th - T123s and T046B1s celebrating a hunt and Slate the humpback!

On June the 14th we left Nanaimo Harbour on another private charter hoping to find ourselves some orca! We went north around the tip of Gabriola Island and off in the distance we saw a telltale blow! As we got closer it was clear this was a humpback whale! This Humpback is a frequent visiter in our waters BCX1210 “Slate”! You can identify slate by the trailing edge of her flukes, or tail. She has a dent on the left fluke and on the right some very pointed edges, as you can see in the photo below. She also has a very recognizable dorsal fin for a humpback whale which can be helpful if she isn’t doing deep dives and showing off her flukes.

Slate the humpback! Can you spot the features on her flukes that make her unique?

After spending some time with Slate we decided to continue on our hunt for orca! We headed south along the Gabriola Island and Valdes Island shoreline until in the distance we saw a crowd of gulls. These gulls were in a frenzy because in the water under them was two pods of orca finishing off a hunt! As we got closer we got to witness some of the joy that is often seen in orca after finishing their meal with lots of breaching by the young whales, tail slapping, and porpoising through the water. After examination of their dorsal fins and saddle patches we determined the pods to be the T123s and the T046B1s travelling together bringing the group size to 7 whales. It was a blast watching these animals playing around in the water. Once our time with the orca was up we headed back north to Nanaimo ending an amazing trip! Here are some more of the photos from the day taken by naturalist Val Watson.

A playful tail splash during the excitement!

T046B1A “Tread” pushing her way through the water!

Things can happen so fast on the water sometimes reflexes aren’t good enough to catch the whole event on camera! Hopefully you can still appreciate the power behind this animal from this shot!

Another raised tail from one of the young whales in the group celebrating their lunch!

This excited little orca is most likely T123D “Darcy”. She was born in 2018 and is still very playful!

Beautiful little face pushing through the water with their family in behind. Do you notice the lighter coloured dorsal in the background? Thats T046B1B Tl’uk the famous little white whale!

T123A Stanley showing off this huge flukes! Male orca will have the curve to their flukes when they reach full size since there isn’t any bone supporting their large tail flukes!

Group photo! There are 6 out of the total 7 whales we were watching here in this photo. The big male Stanley is the one who is missing.

Another family photo! this is Stanley in the far back, Sidney (T123) the Mom in the middle, and Darcy the furthest ahead.

Playful surfaces again by Sydney and Stanley!

Tl’uk having some fun splashing around in the water! He has a lot of scars over his body which appear to be from other orca. You can see some of these on his tail in this photo.

A final goodbye to the impressive Stanley.

We hope you enjoyed hearing about the trip and seeing all the photos from the day! If you want to come out for a tour with us we are now open for public tours again! you can find out more by exploring our website or give us a call!