July5th - T49A's Near Nanaimo
Today the T49A’s came to us. Our boats left Nanaimo in search of whales and found them just North of Snake Island outside the Nanaimo harbour.
This pod consists of 6 whales, Nan (T49A), her 4 sons Noah (T49A1), Judy (T49A2), Nat (T49A3), T49A4, and her daughter T49A5.
This pod was having a great day, hanging out and enjoying the sun just like we were. There was lots of tail slapping, especially from the youngsters. While the youngest members were hanging out and playing with each other, Noah decided he wanted to play with some crab traps. He was swimming around, tail slapping and diving right next to them.
Check out some of the fantastic photos our Naturalists got during the tour.
T49A, Nan. Nan has 2 distinct notches at the base of her dorsal fin that help us tell her apart from the rest of the whales. Photo by Ryan Uslu
Photo by Ryan Uslu
The younger members of this pod can be pretty tough to tell apart. Their dorsal fins stay fairly small until they are about 12 years old, when males begin to develop their impressively tall dorsal fins. Noah is the only male in this pod whose grown into his find, and he’s still got a year or 2 of growing to do.
Based on the scaring on his saddle patch this one is likely Nat (T49A3) born in 2011.
Photo by Ryan Uslu
All these whales were very slap happy today. Here’s some of the best tail slap photos.
Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Val Watson
Look mom, I can do a head stand! Photo by Val Watson
Noah playing with the crab traps. Photo by Val Watson
Photo by Ryan Uslu
Telling the T49A’s apart using just their dorsal fins can be pretty tough. Thankfully we can use a few different things to tell them apart. The shape of their saddle patch, the scaring they have and even the shape of their eye patches can help us ID them. In the below photo we can tell it’s T49A5 because she has a very unique eye patch compared to her brothers and even her mom.
Thos angle makes it look like T49A5 has 2 dorsal fins. The white fin is actually one of her older brothers flukes. Photo by Val Watson
Would you like the opportunity to see Orcas, Humpbacks, Seals and other wildlife in the Salish Sea?
You can book your tour directly through our website, emailing us at info@vancouverislandwhalewatch.com, in person at our office, or over the phone at 250-667-5177.
We currently have daily tours at 1 pm on our open and semi-covered vessel.