June 21st - Double species day near Parksville!
June 21st was a beautiful, sunny day as we set out in search of whales. We first found a lone humpback just North-East of Parksville! As you can see in the picture below, humpbacks are one of the type of whales that have two blowholes. Baleen whales have two blowholes while toothed whales have one. The reason for this difference is because baleen whales require more efficient access to oxygen for respiration to support their immense size.
After we viewed this humpback for a while, found two killer whales. We identified these killer whales as Inyo (T37A1) and Elsie (T65A5). Inyo who is 14 years old, is from Volker‘s (T37A) pod but doesn’t always travel with its mother and siblings. Although orcas usually stick to their pods, sometimes males will go off on their own and either hunt alone or with another male. The other orca we identified as Elsie (T65A5) is from Fingers’s (T65A) pod and this male is currently 7 years old.
Check out some of the other pictures by our marine naturalist Cheyenne Brewster:
