April 16th - A sunny day with the T49As in Howe Sound

The 16th of April was a beautiful day and we couldn’t be happier to be out on the water. We left the docks at noon and headed into the Strait of Georgia searching for whales. We managed to make it across the Strait to the entrance of Howe Sound where we found our whales. The T49A’s were traveling South of Bowen Island.

The T49A’s are seen pretty often in our region and are a very distinct pod. T49A (Nan) was born in 1986, making her 35 years old, travels with her 5 offspring. Noah is her oldest son, and has an impressive dorsal fin that makes him very easy to ID. His fin has a very strait trailing edge (back side of the fin) with only a small notch about 1/3rd of the way up. Traveling with him and his mom are his 3 younger brothers, Judy (T49A2, 2007), Nat (T49A3, 2011), T49A4 (2014) and his youngest sister T49A5 (2017).

Orcas are matrilineal animals with extremely strong family bonds. It’s unlikely that any of Nan’s sons will ever leave her for an extended period of time. Though, we do occasionally have odd ball boys who decide they prefer the bachelor life. Nan will most likely travel with her sons for the rest of her life. Her daughter will begin to have calves when she’s between 12 and 16 years old, and can have a calf every 3-4 years. Once she has a small family of her own, she will separate from her moms pod and leave to travel with her own family. This isn’t goodbye forever though. Orcas will often reunite with extended family as they travel the coasts, to share stories and information with other matriarchs and to socialize and hang out with each other.

Orcas don’t breed within their own pod, so whenever Noah, Judy or Nat gets the urge to seek out a mate, they will either wait until their pod crosses an unrelated pod, or they will separate from mom for a few days to a few weeks as they go pod hopping around the Salish Sea. But they will eventually return to moms side. Orca boys are big mommas boys!

Enjoy the rest of the photos of the T49A’s and other wildlife our Naturalist Val took during the tour.

Do you want to see your own whales? We have daily tours at noon out of Nanaimo Harbour. you can book online through our website, Email, call, or come visit our brand new office on the water front to book your tour!