October 15th - Double Species! The T018s and T049As plus 4 humpbacks!

It was another beautiful day as our adventure took us in our open boat Keta out into the Strait of Georgia! We left with some land-based reports of humpback whales nice and close to shore and ended up finding Olympus (KEX0051) and Sherwina (KEY0034) travelling together near Snake Island, only 10 minutes from the harbour!

It’s always great to be able to find the whales nice and close to home like this, we still will only watch a group of whales for a maximum of one hour to minimize our impact on each whale but finding them quickly means there’s more time for searching afterwards! We enjoyed watching Olympus showing off her tail flukes by doing large, dramatic dives with nearly every surface and spending time beneath the surface. Sherwina was also very cooperative today giving us great looks at the undersides of her tail flukes as well. It made IDing these two very easy for us!

Eventually, we had to leave these two behind and continued our search through the Salish Sea until we came across a second group of whales, Bullet (KEX0004) and Two Spot (KEY0010)! These two were also doing deeper dives in the area, likely feeding on the various small schooling fish in the area and krill. While watching Bullet and Two Spot we got word that another vessel had found a pod of orca travelling not too far from our humpbacks so we decided to leave them to their meal and head off towards Porlier pass.

When we got there we realized that this wasn’t just a single pod of orca travelling together, it was two! It was the T049As and the T018s. All of the members of the T018s were accounted for, but a couple were missing from the T049As; Noah and Jude. These young males have been known to travel away from mom lately, so we weren’t surprised nor worried that they weren’t here today. Without Noah ad Jude there, the members of each pod present would be as follows:

T049A Nan (1986)
T049A3 Nat (2011)
T049A4 Neptune (2014)
T049A5 Nebula (2017)
T049A6 (2022)

T018 Esperanza (<1955)
T019 Nootka (<1965)
T019B Galiano (1995)
T019C Spouter (2001)

Sometimes when we see different pods travelling together like this they may take advantage of their numbers to do some extra hunting or socializing, but today we got to see them more on a mission! These 9 whales were travelling south, through Tricomali Channel. They put on quite a show, with the whales all surfacing at the same time often and the young calf from this year was throwing its whole body nearly out of the water when coming to the surface for air! Calves are a favourite to watch as they haven’t quite got the hang of how to surface properly, so they will surface more aggressively than others and show off more of their bodies while they do it. When we first saw T049A6 they were quite beat up so we are always happy to see them travelling happily with their family whenever we are lucky enough to see this group. Orca have high mortality rates in the first year of their lives, usually around 50%. Our transient orca tend to beat these odds, and Nan seems to be a super-mom! Out of her 6 recorded calves, they’re all still alive! It’s very impressive.

The T018s are a cool pod to see in themselves as they are some of the oldest orca in our transient population and the boy’s dorsal fins are an impressive sight to behold. Both of these females (T018 and T019) are post-reproductive and won’t be having any more calves, unlike Nan. Their recorded family tree is much smaller than the T049As, with the four of them being the only known members of their matriline. It’s likely that they have many more offspring since Galiano and Spouter are both reproductive-age males. But, since males play no part in the upbringing of their offspring we will just never know.

No matter their relations or activity, getting to see the whales in the wild is an amazing sight, and our Marine Naturalist Aly Kohlman captured many amazing moments from the tour today which you can view below!

Olympus (KEX0051) showing off her dorsal.

Olympus (KEX0051) gearing up for a dive.

Front view of Olympus’ (KEX0051) tail while diving.

Another front view of Olympus’ (KEX0051) tail.

Left to right T49A6, Nat (T049A3), Neptune (T049A4)

Left to right Esperanza (T018), Nootka (T019)

Big boy Spouter (T019C). You can really see the new dent that has developed on his dorsal.

Galiano (T019B) with his impressive dorsal.

Having a T-Party! Left to right Nebula (T049A5), Neptune (T049A4), Nat (T049A), Nan (T049A), Esperanza (T018)

Left to right Nebula (T049A5), Neptune (T049A4), Nat (T049A3), Nan (T049A), Esperanza (T018)

Left to right Nat (T049A3), T049A6, Nan (T049A), Esperanza (T018).

Left to right Nat (T049A3), T049A6, Nan (T049A)

Left to right Neptune (T049A4), T049A6, Nan (T049A)

Left to right Neptune (T049A4), Nan (T049A)

Our happy little rock sausages/harbour seals enjoying the sunny day!

California Sea Lion giving his nose a scritch!

Jilann LechnerOctober 15, 2022WhalesComment