July 6th - Killer whales hunting in the north arm!

Our semi-covered vessel left Nanaimo at 10:30am on July 6th and headed out into beautiful conditions. We ended up near Vancouver, near Point Grey at the north arm of the Fraser River. The water here carries a lot of silt and so has a much lighter, milkier colour. We spotted some contrasting black fins and blows pop out of the water! A pod of killer whales/orcas, at least 3, were busy traveling and foraging.

We were able to ID the T124A2s, a family group led by the matriarch T124A2 “Elkuga” born in 2001. Elkuga has a wide and short dorsal fin that is quite distinguishable compared to the other orcas we see in the Salish Sea. She was hunting with her two offspring T124A2A “Agafia” and T124A2B “Litton”.

Agafia is a male who was born in 2013, so he is still considered a young adult and his fin has a lot of growing to do yet. Male orcas reach sexual maturity in their early teens and their fins continue to grow throughout their entire lives, sometimes reaching up to 6 feet!

Litton is a female juvenile orca born in 2016 and she has a noticeable nick about half way down her fin. Her saddle patch is still pretty dark, it will lighten as she ages, but it is already pretty scarred up which helps us to identify her.

While on scene with these marine mammal hunting orca, we saw them hunt a marine mammal! One of those cute, furry harbour seals that are abundant on our shorelines was on the menu today. Most of the work, at least the gory bits, usually take place underwater and what we saw on the surface was a lot of circling, splashing, and sudden porpoising. On this tour the whales let the seal come to the surface to catch its breath and we managed to snag a photo of it; perhaps a photo of some of its last breaths!

On our way back to port we stopped at Entrance Island which was full of wildlife. We saw sea lions getting splashed by the waves, an oyster catcher perusing the intertidal zone, a blue heron patiently waiting, and a majestic bald eagle perched on the lighthouse.

Here are some of the best photos taken during the tour by marine naturalist Cheyenne Brewster. We are running daily adventures from Nanaimo at both 10:30 and 3:30 on both our semi-covered and open vessels. We’ve still got some seats for this weekend so give us a call or head to our website to book!