April 17th - Perfect day with Orcas outside Victoria

On April 17th we set sail with clear skies and high hopes. We traveled out into the Strait, doing a large loop infront of Nanaimo scanning the waters. We made a stop at Entrance Island to see all the Stellar Sea Lions, and a few California Sea Lions. After leaving we went back into the Strait, heading towards the shores of Vancouver.

Our Semi Covered boat, Kula, had to make a pit stop in the Strait to rescue a sad balloon that was floating on the water. Any time our boats encounter garbage in the water we do our best to remove it, so it doesn’t end up breaking down in our waters, or worse, in a whales stomach. Over the years we’ve collected many balloons and a few shoes!

After traveling south through the Strait we passed through Active Pass and headed through the Gulf Islands to the East side of Sidney Island. There we found our 10 Orcas, the T124A’s and the T124D’s. The T124A’s have a new member to the family this year, T124A4A. Kittiwake is the Matriarch of this pod, and this new calf makes her a Grandmother for the second time!

Sabio, T124A4, is only 11 years. She has just hit whale puberty and has had a calf very early in her life. This can be a good thing, because Sabio has only had 11 years to absorb pollutants, which are often passed on to calves in their mothers milk. If Sabio had waited until she was 18 or 20 to have her calf, there would be a much higher accumulation of toxins in her milk. This little one has a hard year ahead, as orca calves have about a 50% mortality rate in their first year of life. But with an attentive mom, and an awesome grandmother watching over them, this little one should do just fine!

Traveling with the T124A’s is the T124D’s, Kittiwakes sister, Field, had joined up to travel as one big pod. You could tell the sisters missed each other, as almost every photo we managed to get was either of the calf, or of Kittiwake and Field glued to each others sides.

Meeting up like this is quite common for orca pods. it’s a great way for family members to reunite and hang out, as well as an opportunity for them to share information.

All the members of these pods are as follows:

T124A’s - T124A, Kittiwake, 1984. T124A3, Wasini (F) 2006. T124A3A (m) 2019. T124A4, Sabio (f) 2010. T124A4A, 2021. T124A6 (m) Kasuun.
T124D’s - T124D Field 1996. T124D1 Salish II, 2014. T124D2 Seretse, 2017.

T124D, Field, and her sister 124A, kittiwake and Photo by Val Watson

T124A Kittiwake (left) and her sister T124D Field. Photo by Val Watson

T124A4, Sabio (front) Photo by Val Watson

T124D, Field, Spy hopping and sister Kittiwake close behind. Photo by Val Watson

T124D (Field) left, T124A (Kittiwake) middle, and T124A6 (Kasuun) right. Photo by Val Watson

T124A4A is the newest member to the T124A pods. Can you spot them in this photo?Photo by Val Watson

T124A4A is a brand new pod member this year. They still have a little yellow/orange to their white spots. Photo by Val Watson

Newest addition, T124A4A. Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Field spy hopping as her sister, Kittiwake, comes up behind her. Photo by Rebeka Pirker

California Sea Lions at Harmac. Photo by Val Watson

Stellar Sea lions on Entrance Island. Photo by Rebeka Pirker

The Cormorants have started to roost! Photo by Val Watson

RhinosPhoto by Rebeka Pirker — Rhinoceros Auklets were all over the water during the tour today. Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Screen Shot 2021-04-18 at 1.46.30 PM.png

Today’s tour was a bit longer than normal, as we had to go all the way to Sidney Island near the Washington boarder to find our whales. That’s about a 200km round trip! On the way we stopped at Entrance Island to see Stellar and California Sea Lions, before traveling through the Strait of Georgia and Active pass to get there. On the way home we traveled North through Trincomali Channel, watching for the chance to see more whales. We didn’t get more whales, but once through Dodd’s Narrows we did stop at Harmac to see Stellar Sea Lions and the bluffs of Gabriola Island to see the Cormorants as they begin to roost for the season.

On the map, the red dot is Entrance Island, where we had the Stellar Sea Lions, the Green dot is where we found the Orcas, the Blue dot is Harmac with the California Sea Lions, and the Pink dot is the bluff where we see the Cormorants,

Jilann LechnerApril 19, 2021Comment