On May 29th we left on our first sunset tour of the season! We headed out of the harbour and headed North in our search for whales. We encountered the T123’s, T100’s, and the T46B’s playing together in the middle of the Strait of Georgia. Laurel (T100C) and Stanley (T123A) were both seen tail splashing and pec slapping with their pods. These two males seemed extremely excited to be interacting with the other pods. We also witnessed a double breach (two whales jumping out of the water simultaneously side by side)! Unfortunately all passengers on board were so excited by this display that we were unable to capture a good photo of it.
After watching these pods frolic, we left the scene to see if we could follow up on a reported Humpback sighting in the nearby area. We located at least 5 different Humpbacks in the area, including Valiant (KEX0049), a cow-calf pair (mother and child), and a couple of others we are currently working on IDing. Valiant is an easy to ID individual because of their scarred fluke. It is likely this humpback was hunted by orca during its infancy. Valiant has now grown big and strong regardless of its tough childhood, and is now a frequently spotted Humpback along our coast.

After heading back to the harbour, we were informed of a report of a possible predation event happening shortly after we left. It is possible that the orca that we observed earlier in the day had attacked the calf of the cow-calf pair we had seen just shortly before our departure. Orca predation on Humpbacks is uncommon in the Salish Sea, but is not unheard of. We will be keeping an eye out for this pair in the coming days to see if this report was accurate. We will be posting a follow up blog if we are able to confirm this event.

Interestingly, two of these orca pods (T100’s and T123’s) were both seen interacting in another possible predation scenario involving a humpback during one of our tours in 2019.
If you would like to read about the previous orca-humpback interaction including the T100’s and T123’s, you can find that blog post here: Orcas vs. Humpback!

For people who whale watch, whether its on a boat or on land, the Whalereport Alert System (WRAS) by Ocean Wise is a great app to download to alert commercial mariners of whale sightings so they can take mitigation measures such as slowing down or changing course to avoid disturbing or collision with the whales. We highly recommend this app for whale watchers to reduce collisions and disturbance on whales. For more information on this app check out their website at: https://research.ocean.org/project/whalereport-alert-system

Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Rebeka Pirker and Cheyenne Brewster. We plan to offer more sunset tour options in the future - please stay tuned for updates on departure dates!

Here is a great picture of Valiant’s chewed up fluke. This photo was taken from Keta coastal conservation’s humpback catalogue. Keta is a research team seeking to understand the lives of humpbacks in the Salish Sea.

May 29th - T-party and Humpback soup at sunset!

© Vancouver Island Whale Watch 2018-2024. All Rights Reserved.