July 20th - A fabulous day with killer whales!

July 20th was a beautiful sunny day as we set out in the morning on our open boat Keta. We went through Dodd’s Narrows in search of whales. We first found a bald eagle and some seals near Porlier Pass. Bald eagles like to perch on objects and trees high up. From this high vantage point, they try to spot their prey. Their eyesight is 8 times better than ours, allowing them to see 2 miles away.

The seals we found were laying down on land, where their colouration helped them blend in to the background. This is a good way to avoid the gaze of their predators. Some of the seals were thermoregulating, which is when they have half their body in the water to cool off while their head and hind flippers poke out of the water.

Not far off from here, we spotted three killer whales travelling south towards Porlier Pass! The three Transient Killer Whales we spotted were called Jude (T49A2), Neftali (T77C) and Alycon (T77D). Jude is a 14 year old male and is part of Nan’s (T49A) pod. He doesn’t often travel with his mother and siblings. He is often spotted travelling with other killer whales. Currently he is travelling with the two brothers from the T77 pod. Neftali is 15 years old and his brother Alycon is 12 years old. We watched these young killer whales travel along the coastline for an hour before heading back. We found some Stellar sea lions at Entrance Island and some cormorants at Gabriola Island on our way back which concluded our morning tour.

At 3:30, we set out again with out boat Cascadia to find the three killer whales again. This time we spotted them at Active Pass between Galiano and Maine Island! Killer whales are capable of travelling long distances everyday as they travel about 75-100 miles per day. We followed them in towards Active Pass. Just south of Mayne Island, these killer whales started to hunt a harbour seal! They started slapping their tails and circling around where the harbour seal was. Orcas typically eat 100-300 pounds per day and they share their meal together. Harbour seals typically weigh up to 285 pounds. After watching this exciting hunt we started to head back towards Nanaimo where we dropped by some harbour seals and cormorants on our way back.

Check out the photos our naturalist Ryan Uslu got below!