May 9th - Now that's a lot of whales!!

The crew were eager to set off the dock and head towards a report of a large group of orcas seen traveling north of Nanaimo. These killer whales had been seen earlier in the morning from shore, but these whales can travel fast and we wanted to find them ASAP!

Well, find them quickly is what we did. Cascadia left at noon and were on scene with orcas only 20 minutes later. There were dorsal fins popping up everywhere, all shapes and sizes! This large group of transient killer whales was what we affectionately call a “T-Party” - a large group of marine mammal-hunting killer whales composed of multiple pods who are usually not seen traveling together. There were 12+ whales in this superpod, from about 6 different small matriarchal pods.

These encounters are always so exciting! Not only do we get to see more dorsal fins together, these T-parties are usually pretty active as the whales spend more time socializing. We saw lots of tail slaps, tail throws, pec slaps, rolling at the surface, and also a much anticipated BREACH! We never know why or when a killer whale will breach, so it always exciting to see and even better if we can manage to snag a photo (which we did)!

Some of the whales we identified from our photos were the T18’s, T36’s, T46B’s (no Tl’uk), T63 & T65, T100’s, T46C2 and T125A & T128, and possibly more!

We use the size and shape of the dorsal fin, as well as the scarring in the saddle patch and shape of the eye patch, to identify individual animals. With our telephoto lens and whale ID catalogue we can usually match at least a few from the pod. We also work closely with other whale watching companies to share sightings and IDs, so it really is a group effort!

We hope you enjoy these wonderful photos taken by marine naturalist Cheyenne Brewster on the tour. We are still running tours at 12pm 7 days a week, and there are a lot of whales around to look for. Head to our website or give us a call to book.