May 24th - In the Gulf Island with the T036's

At noon on May 24th our vessel Cascadia departed from downtown Nanaimo in search of wildlife. It was a cool, cloudy day with a bit of drizzle, but that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits - we were on a mission! After a bit of searching we heard reports of a pod of orca south of us in the Gulf Islands. We headed towards Active Pass and came upon a social group of killer whales - the T036’s!

The T036’s are a pod of 5 killer whales, led by the oldest female in the group, the matriarch T036 “Flapjack”. Flapjack was born around 1970 and had her daughter “Tattertip” T036B in 1998. Tattertip has a unique dorsal fin with two notches in it, one at the very tip (her namesake). She has had three successful offspring, T036B1 “Bhotia” born in 2009, T036B2 “Greenfelder” born in 2013, and the newest member of the pod, T036B3 born in 2018. That’s three generations of whales!

During our encounter these whales were demonstrating lots of social behaviours such as tail slaps, pec slaps, a headstand, spyhops, and even a breach! It is not every day that we get to see such exciting behaviour so it was a real treat. Here are some of the best photos taken on the tour by marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker.

Our tours are still leaving daily at 12pm and we are happy to welcome people from all over Vancouver Island at this time. Join us for an adventure exploring your own backyard!