April 2nd - Orcas at Salt Spring!
It was a beautiful sunny day as we set sail on the Salish Sea looking for whales. We stopped briefly at Harmac to see the California Sea Lions hanging out on the logs.
The California Sea Lions hang out here throughout the winter fishing in nearby Dodd’s narrows and around the Nanaimo Harbour. We loving seeing them this time of year, because soon enough they will begin their own migration to California for mating season and we won’t see them again until around September.
California Sea Lions sunning on the logs next to Harmac
After hanging out with the Sea Lions we continued south through Dodd’s Narrows. Dodd’s is a beautiful passage between Nanaimo Harbour and the Golf Islands. The high currents through the area sustain a host of beautiful and unique wildlife below the surface, from fish and crabs to jelly fish and anemones. All these fish and crustaceans bring the Seals, Sea Lions, and Eagles to the area frequently. The Orcas also use Dodd’s narrows frequently to travel through the islands, and we've even had humpbacks in the areas as well. It’s a very well used local channel!
From Dodd’s we continued south through the Gulf Islands watching for whales. We came to the Saanich Inlet where there had been an early morning report of whales. After searching the area it was apparent the whales had moved on. We kept our hopes up and continued on, through the channel between Salt Spring Island and Vancouver Island. It wasn’t long before we got the call that someone had found the whales, and they were straight ahead of us. We found 2 pods of Orcas swimming through the waters near Beaver Point. The T36A’s and the T49A’s were traveling together, moving at a stead pace. We got to spend an hour with these guys as they traveled along with them almost all the way to Mayne Island.
6 of the 10 whales cruising past Beaver point.
A big part of our job on the water is alerting recreational boats to the presence of whales on the water. Whales can be hard to spot when you’re not watching for them, and most boaters don’t know the rules of boating around wildlife. As we traveled with our Orcas a large rec boat was approaching, heading directly for the whales with no signs of slowing down or changing coarse. Working with another whale watching boat we were able to alert the rec boater to the whales, using our horns and angling our boats to indicate their location and directional of travel. The rec boater thankfully slowed down and changed course to avoid them, but sometimes we aren’t so lucky and boaters simply continue on their path. Collision injuries are often fatal to whales, so any time we get to prevent an accident is a good day in our books.
The two pods we encountered where the 36A’s and 49A’s.
The 36A’s are lead by 36A herself, born in 1990. She travels with her 3 kids, her eldest daughter, 36A1 (2005), 36A2 (2012) and 36A3 (2015). The gender of there 2 youngest is still unknown, and male orcas don’t start growing their large dorsal fins until about 12 years old. So 36A2, if they are a male, should start to show in the next year or 2.
T49A’s are lead by Nan (1986) and includes her 5 offspring. Nan’s oldest, Noah (T49A1), is a boy born in 2001, making him 20 years old this year! His dorsal fin is about full grown, at just over 6 feet tall he’s an impressive sight traveling with his younger brothers and sister. Nan has 4 sons (2001, 2007, 2011, 2014) and a daughter (2017). When it comes to Orca families the boys rarely ever leave moms side permanently. They may make small journeys on the own for a few weeks, especially if they are looking for a mate, but they usually return to moms side eventually. Little T49A5 has 4 older brothers to look after her and once she reaches her teens she’ll likely start having her own calves, and eventually she will leave Nan’s side and travel with her own children. But that doesn’t mean she won’t join back up with mom from time to time.
Noah (T49A1) has such a large fin at sways when he surfaces.
Rhinoceros Auklets are close relatives to the puffin. They get these long whiskers during breeding season.
We covered a ton of ground on the tour! The red dot is where we found out California Sea Lions, Blue dot is Harbour Seals and the red line is where we traveled with our Orcas.
Today we traveled 184 km, or about 100 nautical miles round trip and saw Harbour seals (blue dot), California Sea Lions (red dot), and a Rhinoceros Auklet with our 10 orcas (red line). For the second tour of the season we couldn’t have asked for better!
We are running daily tours at noon! Come visit our new office on the sea wall at 90 - Front street, call us at 250-667-5177, or email info@vancovuerislandwhalewatch to book your tour!