August 27th - T-party all day and some humpbacks in the afternoon!

On August 27th we got an early morning report of Orcas traveling through Active Pass. Our boats traveled south through the Gulf Islands to catch up with the Orcas who had made it half way up Galiano Island and were heading slowly towards Porlier Pass.

This group of Orcas we actually a small T-party, which is a gathering of several pods, or members from several pods. These gatherings can be for social or hunting reasons, or a mixture. What was interesting about this gathering was that it was actually two 3 generation pods plus the Bachelor Trio.
The T37’s and T34’s were traveling together and had been for a little while, and had been joined by Jude, Neftali and Alcyon.
All members of the groups were:

T37 - Rocky
T37B - Harold
T37B1 - Lance
T37B2 - Trident

T34 - Grace
T34A - Pachamama
- T34A1
T34B - Sonder

T49A2 - Jude
T77C - Neftali
T77D - Alcyon

We’ve talked about Rocky (T37) and Grace (T34) before, and how these are 3 generation pods. But while doing some further reading today, we found out something far more interesting.
This T-party may actually be one very big family reunion with 4 generations of whales.

Grace was born sometime before 1969, making her at least 52 and this also means she has gone through menopause. Most Orca research didn’t start until the mid to late 60’s, and so a lot of our whales were adults by the time we first cataloged them and their ages are just a best guess based on size and whether or not they had other whales traveling with them. Grace was given the number T34 and after she was sighted researchers were able to catalog her future offspring. Grace had 2 confirmed calves, Pachamama and Sonder. Pachamama was born in 2007, when Grace was at least 38 years old. This is pretty late for an Orca to produce a first calf, so it’s likely that Grace had a calf previously.

There is some speculation that Rocky (T37) may be one of her calves. This information is where things get a bit cloudy. Rocky was a lone adult when she was spotted so we can’t confirm whether or not Grace is her mom. When Orcas are first spotted, if they are adults, they are given a number to track them with. Eventually they end up with a nickname, and any of their calves will share a number with them. For instance, Rocky being T37, her first born was T37A - Volker. The “A” showing that Volker was her first born. Volkers first born is T37A1, back to using numbers, and so on it goes. If Rocky had been seen with Grace as a calf she would have been given the number T34A.

If Rocky is the daughter of Grace that would mean Pachamama and Sonder are Rocky’s siblings. That would also make Harold Grace’s granddaughter, and Lance and Trident would be her Great grandkids!

We don’t genetically test our Orcas so there is a lot we will never know about our whales, such as who their fathers are, or for many of our older whales, who their mothers are.

We also recently found out some info about our Bachelor Trio. We found out that Neftali is a suspected male, and Alcyon is a suspected female. Neftali is apparently just a late bloomer, but we have noticed their dorsal fin slowly straightening and growing larger. Alcyon, being a suspected female, leaves us with a few questions! Namely, why is such a young female traveling away from her mom? We hope to see these 2 reunited with their mom and siblings, and we hope to see Jude return to his family soon as well.

In the afternoon we had our same little T-party of whales, who had made their way to the north end of Thetis Island.

In the afternoon we also came across 3 Humpback whales. This group was Zig-Zag and her new Calf traveling with Graphite, Slate’s calf from 2019.
This group was whales was doing deep feeding dives, filling up on small fish and Krill in preparation for their migration back to the breeding grounds. Zig-Zag and Graphite would be doing their own feeding, with Graphite needing about 3000 lbs of food per day while they are in our waters.
Zig-Zag however needs to be eating about 5000 lbs of food per day, because she is producing milk for her calf. Humpback calves grow incredibly fast and need a lot of food to do so. Zig-Zag has to provide enough milk to her calf so they can also make the migration, as they will split from their mom this winter and still need to make it back to the feeding ground on their own reserves.

Check out the photos below of our whales that were taken by our naturalists Rebecca, Brad, Val and Beka.

Jilann LechnerAugust 31, 2021Comment