October 12th was a great trip with both species of whales being found! When we left the harbour in the morning we headed north to a shore-based report of humpback whales which were travelling amongst the islands off the coast of Nanoose Bay. Not too long into our search of the area we saw the blows in the distance! It was a group of humpback whales!

The whales were being a little tricky in their behaviour, making it hard to determine exactly how many whales were present. We started by having Geometry (BCZ0338) travelling with Prowler (KEX0047). While we were watching them these two slowly separated and another whale appeared, Watson (Split Fluke’s 2021 calf)! These two had very sporadic surfaces as they started doing deeper dives and showing up behind the boat, in front of the boat, and anywhere we didn’t expect them to be. Usually, when the humpbacks are surfacing erratically like this, they’re feeding. If they are just travelling they’ll typically be moving in a single direction, heading towards some destination, or maybe the next spot with abundant food.

Our time with these whales was soon up and we headed back south in the direction of Gabriola Island where there was a pod of Orca! These orca were soon identified as the T037As! This pod consists of 5 members, Volker (T037A), Inky (T037A2), Spinnaker (T037A3), Crinkle (T037A4), and T037A5. Volker also has another daughter Inyo (T037A1) but she travels away from the rest of the pod most of the time.

Today the orca seemed to be socializing, with there being plenty of surface activity including spy hopping, tail slapping, and travelling close together. This is one of our favourite pods as they are seen quite frequently around Nanaimo. Over the last few years we have been able to see Inky, the young male in the group, start to mature. When we were first seeing this pod it was hard to tell Volker and Inky apart as the two have very similar notches out of their dorsal fin. When he started to go through puberty and his dorsal started to sprout, it made things a lot easier. They still have very similar fins when seen separately, but when they’re next to each other the size difference is very noticeable. Although Volker is obviously older than Inky (being that she’s his mother) she is no longer larger than him. Orca have what’s known as sexual dimorphism, meaning that the males and females of the species look distinctly different from each other. The males will get larger than the females and more robust, and all their fins will also grow proportionally larger. This is most obvious with the dorsal fin (which in males can each be up to 6 feet tall compared to 4 feet in females) since the dorsal fin is often seen above the water's surface. The other fins will also get larger with huge rounded pectoral fins observed in males as well as their tail flukes also getting larger. The size of the tail flukes in males can get so large when they start to curl in! This is normal and an easy way to tell if it’s a male or female if there’s only a tail being shown, but only works if they’ve started going through puberty.

After leaving the orca we had a couple of stops to see our local pinnipeds. The harbour seals can be found hauled out on the shallow sloped rocky shorelines of many islands around Nanaimo. We also have our sea lions now having returned from their summers away in their breeding grounds! These guys like to hang out in an interesting spot next to the pulp mill in Nanaimo! There are lots of log booms in the water there waiting to be loaded onto ships whole or being processed into a pulp at the mill before being shipped off. The Sea Lions take advantage of these log booms as it’s a place that won’t be affected by the tides, so they can rest at all points throughout the day. It’s also close to Dodd Narrows which is a sea lion hotspot this time of year, as the bottleneck has lots of salmon migrating through trying to get to their rivers to spawn. The currents that are produced in the narrows likely also help the sea lions hunt as the eddies and whirlpools can make the fish disoriented.

Overall, it was a great trip filled with a ton of wildlife! Our onboard naturalist Rebeka Pirker captured many amazing moments from this trip which you can see below!

October 12th - Geometry, Prowler, Watson, and the T037A's close to home!

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