June 27th - T36/36B's and T49A1 + T49A2

This past Sunday was a hot one for sure! Fortunately it’s about 6 degrees cooler on the water and even cooler when going fast and getting a splash here or there! We set out from Nanaimo at 10:30 and headed towards reports of Bigg’s killer whales in Howe Sound, just northwest of Vancouver city. There we encountered the T36/36Bs traveling near Bowen Island.

The matriarch of the pod, T36 “Flapjack” is estimated to be born around 1970 and she was seen traveling with her daughter and her 3 grand whales.

Most of the time we watched these orcas they were traveling slowly in the flat calm waters of Howe Sound, but one whale in particular had a bit more energy to spare. “Chip”, a young whale born to T36B in 2018, was porpoising in and out of the water, putting on quite the show for our guests!

Left to right: T036B3/Chip, T036B/Tattertip, T036B2/Greenfelder

After watching the T36/36B’s, we set off in search of other wildlife. We found a very large Stellar sea lion lounging with his ladies, a colony of harbour seals including one with a tag, a pair of peregrine falcons, and a flight of cormorants. While Naturalist Rebeka was presenting her cormorant speech, she was interrupted by T49A1/Noah and T49A2/Judy cruising by! This is a great example of what it is always important to watch your surroundings - whales can arrive at the oddest times!

Noah and Judy have been spotted regularly for about a week around Nanaimo’s waters. We suspect that big brother Noah (20 years old) is showing his younger brother Judy (14 years old) how to survive and thrive in the ocean. Judy would be just starting puberty, and is able to have his own calves now. He will likely head out by himself briefly to mate with females from other pods before returning back to his mother’s pod.

Unfortunately, while on scene we spent a lot of time honking and waving down recreational boaters who were either unaware of the whales presence or chose to ignore them. Howe Sound is one of the worst places in our range where we constantly see recreational boats, usually rented for the day, cutting off the whale’s path, being way too close, or driving overtop of the whales. You can imagine how stressful this would be for the whales and how it could easily result in an accident.

If you are out enjoying a boat ride and you see blows, please slow down to around 5 knots and and keep your distance. The government regulations for watching whales such as greys or humpbacks is 100m distance, and for orca it is 400m or 200m if you are a commercial whale watching vessel.

Everyone can enjoy whale watching if we all cooperate to give them their space and go nice and slow!

Marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker took all of these wonderful wildlife photographs. If you’d like to join us for an adventure we will be having both morning and afternoon departures starting July 1st! Book your seats now!

A peregrine falcon perched high up in the trees