September 6th - T37's and T37A's off of Bowen Island, 4 humpbacks at Thrasher rock
We had so many different whales on September 6th!
First we headed East towards Vancouver and found the T37’s and 37A’s hanging traveling SE. The 37 and 37A’s are 2 pods but 1 big family!
Rocky III, T37, was born around 1979 and travels with her daughter 37B (Harold) from 1998, and her grandchildren 37B1, Lance, and 37B2, Trident.
37A, Volker, was born in 1994, making her 26 years old and already has 5 calves of her own! So it makes sense that she’s formed her own big pod. Volker’s calves were born in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2019. They are Inyo, Inky, Spinnaker, Crinkle and T37A5 respectively.
This family seems to have calves young, Rocky III was 15 when she had Volker, Volker was 13 when she had Inyo and Harald was 14 when she had Lance.
Orcas can start having calves when they are 12 but often wait until 18-19 to have their first. With this family at least, having calves young has proved a smart move! All these whales are happy and healthy as far as we can tell.
Orca calf mortality can be as high as 50%, likely because whales (and all mammals) store toxins in their fat. So when an orca has a calf those fat deposits are burned up to produce milk, which takes all the toxins with it. Calves ingest a lost of toxins right out of the womb, so the theory goes that the younger they have calves, and the fewer years between calves, the less toxic build up there is in moms body to pass on to the calf.
Another interesting pattern is that Volker seems to have calves in 2 and 4 year increments, 2 years between Inyo and Inky, 4 years later Spinnaker, 2 years later Crinkly and 4 years later her newest calf. Does this mean next year Volker will have another one? Only time will tell!
As we were heading back towards Nanaimo, we were lucky enough to run into some humpbacks. Kula and Cascadia found Orion and 3 others that were identified near Gabriola Pass. Meanwhile Keta found Zephyr, Heather and her calf and one other. Keta was lucky enough to see Zephyr breach and do pec slaps a bunch of times!
Check out some of the pictures our naturalists took below!
Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.
T37B2 and Harald (T37B). Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Volker (T37A). Photo by Val Watson.
Harald (T37B). Photo by Val Watson.
Harald (T37B) and Lance (T37B1). Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Beautiful breach by Zephyr. Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.
Pec slap! Photo by Val Watson.
Animation by Val Watson.
Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Orion. Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Photo by Ryan Uslu.
Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.