For our afternoon trip for August 26th, we set back out towards Active pass with our two boats Cascadia and Kula. After searching for a while, we found a humpback called Smiley! Smiley is a female humpback that was born in 2015. Humpbacks usually become mature around 4-10 years of age. She might come back here with a calf in the next few years! Humpbacks are thought to have a lifespan of close to 80 years but this is still unknown.

While we were with Smiley, we got a report of Transient Orcas not far from home! After spending a little more time with Smiley, we set out towards the orcas which we found near De Courcy Island. The orcas we found were the T37’s and the T34’s. The members of these pods and their birth years are:

Rocky III (T37): 1979
Harald (T37B): 1998
Lance (T37B1): 2012
Trident (T37B2): 2017
Grace (T34): ~1969
Pachamama (T34A): 2007
Sonder (T34B): 2017
T34A1: 2019

Rocky III is the matriarch of the T37’s. Rocky III is currently 42 years old. Female orcas have an average lifespan of 60-80 years and females go through menopause at age 40. She has one daughter, Harald who is currently about 23 years old travelling with her. Harald has two children, Lance who is 9 years old and Trident who is only 4! Lance is a male and will develop his huge dorsal fin by the time he is 15-25 years old.

Grace is the matriarch go the T34’s and she has two children who are Pachamama and Sonder. Grace is 52 years old (!!). Pachamama had a calf when she was 12 years old! Her calf T34A1 is only 2 years old.

When we got on scene with these orcas, they were hunting a harbour seal. We saw really close towards land where there were a few harbour seals laying down on. They found one in the water and started to slap their tails against it in an attempt to break the seals spine and to drown it. Orcas need to eat 100-300 pounds of food per day while an average seal weighs about 225 pounds. When the orcas catch their prey, they’ll share it among each other.

It was a long trip as we got back in the dark but it was definitely worth it. Check out the photos our naturalists got below!