On October 8th we left the harbour with a report of some whales nearby, spotted from shore near north Nanaimo. We headed in that direction and were able to spot Corona (KEX0022) and her 2022 calf! These two started out doing typical humpback behaviour, coming to the surface a few times to breathe and then doing deeper dives down in the water column to where their food spends its time during the day. After doing a few feeding dives, the calf suddenly gave us some excitement! They threw their fluke up into the air giving us a rare view of the underside of the tail flukes. Typically we rely on these rare instances of surface activity to get ID photos for calves since they haven’t built their muscles enough to raise their tail flukes fully out of the water when they dive as the adult humpbacks do.

Since we work closely with the humpback whale research group, Keta Coastal Conservation, these photos will be valuable to add to the catalogue so that we will be able to match the tail photos in the following years to see if the calf returns to the same area as Corona. The calf will likely have its fluke change colouration and get new scars but at least we have a place to start!

After leaving these two humpbacks we went back into search mode, going south towards Gabriola Island when we got word that there was a pod of Transient Orca travelling northbound off of Galiano Island! We headed that way and found the T049As travelling together (minus Noah, T049A1). The members of the pod present today were:

T049A Nan (1986)
T049A2 Jude (2007)
T049A3 Nat (2011)
T049A4 Neptune (2014)
T049A5 Nebula (2017)
T049A6 (2022)

Jude and Nat were travelling together slightly away from the rest of the family which is common to see with males. Jude was just off on an adventure of his own with T065A3 Amir earlier in the season, but both have been recorded back with their families now. It was fun getting to watch this large family travelling back together, especially since T049A6 is one of the youngest whales in the transient orca population right now! They were born early this year and it’s been great watching them grow since we first spotted them! When T049A6 was first seen it was very beaten up with lots of fresh wounds on its dorsal fin, and it’s been recorded to have an injury or deformity to its face as well through photographs. We wondered if this would cause issues for it since it was so young, but it still seems to be happy and full of energy every time we’ve seen the T049As this year! Nan is a bit of a super-mom with all 6 of her offspring surviving still, beating the estimated 50% mortality rate for orca in the first few years of life. Four of her 6 offspring have been recorded as male, meaning once all four get to be fully grown, this will be a very impressive pod to watch! They may not all stay travelling with mom, but only time will tell. For now, it’s an amazing sight to see 6 of the members of the pod travelling together!

Please enjoy the photos from the tour taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Rebeka Pirker, and Vanessa Vereschahen below.

Corona (KEX0022)’s 2022 calf. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Corona (KEX0022)’s 2022 calf. Photo by Beka Pirker.

Corona (KEX0022) and her 2022 calf. Photo by Beka Pirker.

Corona (KEX0022)’s 2022 calf. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Corona (KEX0022, left) and her 2022 calf. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Left to right: Neptune (T049A4) and his mother Nan (T049A). Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Left to right: Nan (T049A) and her new calf T049A6. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Left to right: Nebula (T049A5) and Nan (T049A). Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Left to right: Nebula (T065A5) and her mother Nan (T049A). Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Jude (T049A2). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Nat (T049A3). Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

While it is uncommon to see such a young Harbour Seal pup this late into the season, it seems like nothing this year is acting very ‘typical’ - our Humpbacks returned to our area almost a month late and we’ve had an extended drought season all the way into October.

October 8th - T049A's off of Galiano and Corona and calf by Hudson Rocks

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