August 1st 10:30 - Double species to start a new month!

The morning tour on 10:30 was full of whales! All three of our boats set out at 10:30 in search of whales. Cascadia and Kula found Slate and her calf just east of Entrance Island. Slate’s calf was very active and playful that morning and guests got “mugged” by this calf! A humpback “mugging” happens when a humpback comes really close to the boat and spends an extended amount of time interacting with it. During this mugging, our boats turned off the engines and lifted the motors as required. It was an exhilarating sight for everyone on board. Keta, our third vessel, also was mugged by this calf on their way back to the harbour!

After our exciting time with Slate and her calf, we found a huge pod of orcas! This t-party was made up of the T137’s, the T37A’s and the T65’s with a total of 16 orcas. The members of these orca pods and their birth years can be seen below.

137 - Loon (1984)
137A - Jack (2002)
137B - Tempest (2006)
137D - Wright (2012)

T37A - Volker (1994)
T37A1 - Inyo (2007)
T37A2 - Inky (2009)
T37A3 - Spinnaker (2013)
T37A4 - Crinkle (2015)
T37A5 (2019)

T656A - Artemis (1986)
T65A2 - Ooxjaa (2004)
T65A3 - Amira (2007)
T65A4 - Ellifrit (2011)
T65A5 - Elsie (2014)
T65A6 - Cllisto (2018)

Transient killer whales will typically travel in small pods of 3-5 members to remain stealthy for their prey but once in a while they form these “t-parties” to socialize with one another and hunt. They are quite playful and more vocal than usual when they’re joined up with other pods.

Check out the photos our naturalists Rebeka, Brad and Cheyenne got below.

Rolling on over. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster

Smile for the camera! Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Look at that beautiful eye! Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Slate going down for a dive. By Brad Farrow

Jack (T137A). Photo by Cheyenne Brewster

Left to right: Jack (T137A) and Volker (T37A). By Brad Farrow

Sleepy stellar sea lions on one of our buoys. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster

A trio of Turkey Vultures. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster

All the ducks - er, Cormorants in a row! By Brad Farrow

Jilann LechnerAugust 8, 2021Comment