October 30th - Transient Orca and Humpback whales!
Our trip on the 30th of October was full of whales! We ended up finding a total of 7 humpback whales as well as two transient orca!
We found 2 of the humpbacks first who are a common pair to see lately; Sherwina and her calf! These two have been found quite often up near the northern end of the Gulf Islands, although today she was a little bit farther south. These two were slowly travelling around, most likely getting in the last of their feeding time before starting their journey down south.
What we found next was super interesting! It was a group of 5 humpback whales interacting with a couple of transient orca! The humpbacks seemed to be chasing these orca around and it could be possible that the orca were also harassing the humpbacks. Behaviour like this is relatively uncommon, although not unheard of. Our transient orca in the waters of the Salish Sea haven’t been recorded hunting and killing a humpback calf, although transients in other areas have. The transients we saw today were two members of the T137s, and the humpbacks were Uluka, Scratchy, and 3 others. we believe two of the unknowns were a cow-calf pair being shy with their flukes. This could explain why the orca were hanging around, maybe trying to try their luck at hunting this calf. At this time of year the humpback calves are a lot bigger than when they first arrived and would now be a formidable task for a group of orca to take down, especially for only two orca like we saw here. One of our humpbacksks, Scratchy, also has evidence of past orca attacks on their fluke. These marks are known as “Rake marks” since they are made by the orcas teeth raking down the fluke of the humpbacks.
With evidence of past attacks it could be why these humpbacks were acting up around the orca, as sometimes we think the ones who have had past experiences are more likely to show aggression towards the orca if they are in proximity, even if they are just meaning to pass by. No matter what our guesses are it was still an amazing sight to watch and made for a very interesting trip! Below are all the best photos from the day taken by our naturalist Rebecca Stirling!
Harbour seals hauled out on the rocks!
A couple of Black turnstones sharing the rocks with the harbour seals.
Sherwina lifting her fluke out of the water.
Sherwina’s dorsal fin and she travels through the waves.
Sherwina (right) and her calf (left) travelling in front of the Coastal Mountains.
Calf rolling in the strait!
The underside of Sherwina’s tail flukes. This is what is used to identify our humpback whales.
Calf going for a dive! At this age they won’t typically lift their tail flukes out of the water, which can make it hard to tell who’s who in the following years!
The transient orca travelling together.
Scratchy’s tail flukes! If you look closely at the edges of their tail you can see the rake marks left by orca from when they were younger.
Rainblow!
One of our orca with the the coastal mountains in behind.
One of our unknown humpbacks going for a dive.
Uluka showing off their tail flukes!
