October 7th - Double Species day!

We started the day off with a new humpback, Raccoon (BCX1233) who was travelling with Kraken (BCZ0180).

Raccoon is a confirmed female who has had 2 calves, one in 2018 and another in 2020. Kraken does not have a confirmed gender yet, but both of these whales are from the Mexican population. Kraken has been returning to the Salish Sea since at least 2004 and Raccoon has been coming here since at least 2006. That means these 2 were part of the first immigration of humpbacks to the Salish Sea after nearly a century of their absence. Neither of these whales was brought to the Salish Sea by their mother - that we know of. This means they found us on their own, or through word of mouth, and have been returning every year since. They could have been Alaskan whales prior to finding the Salish Sea, or they could have fed off the shores of Washington and California before making their way here. Whatever their history may be, we’re excited they’ve settled on the Salish Sea as their current feeding destination every year. Raccoon was an especially cool sighting as we’d never seen them before ourselves, only ever in the catalogues.

We also encountered Neowise (BCY0160 Calf 2020) and Harpy (BCY0458 Calf 2020) who were playing around the boats. Seeing these 2 together is very exciting as they were not only born in the same year, but their moms were best friends when they were pregnant. Heather and Raptor (Neowise and Harpy’s moms respectively) spent almost the entire summer of 2019 glued to each other’s sides. They were the moms who started the theory that pregnant females hang out in groups. Every year we’ve seen more and more females grouping up and it usually turns out they were pregnant during those times. As newborns these 2 were excitable and fun to watch, always splashing and playing at the surface and always curious about the boats. That behaviour doesn’t seem to have changed as today they were happily rolling around and playing with the boats.
During her first year in the Salish Sea, Harpy was very curious about boats. Her mother Raptor on the other hand was less excited about this curiosity. One of our naturalists can recall watching Raptor teach Harpy how to do deep diving. Harpy didn’t like following mom’s rules and was more interested in the boats. The boat was shut down, watching the pair forage, and during one of Raptor’s deep dives, Harpy took her chance to investigate the boats. She bee-lined for the vessel and almost made it. When she got about 30m away Raptor surfaced in the distance and aggressively pec-slapped the surface once. As she did Harpy dove, still heading for the boat, but resurfaced closer to mom heading away. Like a small child being scolded for misbehaving Harpy was surely getting lectured by Raptor.
Today Raptor was not around to lecture the young ones, so Neowise and Harpy rolled around, playing with the boats and using them to scratch their backs.
Rest assured, the whales were in no danger. All the boats were shut down and remained motionless until the whales left on their own. While this behaviour is cool we always make sure not to encourage the behaviour. This means no petting the whales! We never want to habituate a wild animal to come close as they may one day try and approach a boat that isn’t aware or prepared to have a whale close and they can become very injured, or worse.

As our time with the humpbacks was coming to an end we got word from another boat that there was orca found not to far from us! We waited until the whales were far enough away and slowly started to head over towards McCall Bank where there was a bunch of transient orca spread out in the Strait of Georgia. From our photos we were able to positively ID T100C Laurel, T065A5 Indy, T100F Estrella, T100B1 and T101A Rush. If we are to assume that most of the other members of their pods were amongst the whales spread across the Strait, these would be who was present:

T065A5 Indy (2014)

T100 Hutchins (1979)
T100C Laurel (2002)
T100E Tharaya (2009)
T100F Estrella (2014)

T100B Freya (1997)
T100B1 (2010)

T101 Reef (1969)
T101A Rush (1993)
T101B Lagoon (1997)

Although the names for these pods may lead you to believe otherwise, this was actually a big family reunion! Reef is Hutchins mother, making her Freya’s grandmother! If all the whales from these pods were present it would be (as far as we know) every living member of the T101 family tree (plus Indy as a party-crasher). Most of the time the scientific name lends some idea to the lineage of the whales, with the whales getting a number and letter based on when they were born in relation to their siblings. So T100B for example would be Hutchins (T100)’s second born calf. Hutchins is thought to be Reefs daughter as well, although because of their age the birth wasn't recorded as well as they are now, so this is just a theory.

Although we didn’t know it at the time, it was great to see this whole family reunited, with Indy joining in the fun! Hopefully, Indy will make his way back to his own family soon!

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalists Janine Van Der Linden and Vanessa Vereschahen.

Backstroke! Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Rain-blow. Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Racoon (BCX1233, fluke) and Kraken (BCZ0180, blow). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Pecs in the air! Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Pretending to be a shark. Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Racoon (BCX1233, left) and Kraken (BCZ0180, right). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Kraken (BCZ0180, left) and Racoon (BCX1233, right). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Kraken (BCZ0180). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Racoon (BCX1233). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Neowise (BCY0160’s 2020 calf). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Harpy (BCY0458's 2020 calf) in front of Entrance Island. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Harpy (BCY0458's 2020 calf). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Left to right: T100B1 and Indy (T065A5). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

T100B1 and Indy (T065A5). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Laurel (T100C). Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Laurel (T100C). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Time for a dive! Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Cormorants. Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Harlequin ducks. Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.

Jilann LechnerOctober 7, 2022WhalesComment