March 7th - T-party near Denman Island!

It’s not often we get to go north on our tours, but every now and then we get a call about whales so we go and check it out. As we pulled out of the harbour on the 7th we heard there was a group of Orca traveling near Denman Island. It’s a long trip, about an hour and a half to get all the way up there, but we finally did it. As Kula approached the reported area they slowed and watched and soon enough they could see the tall black fins breaking the surface of the water.

We started snapping pictures to figure out which pods were with us today and we were able to ID the T36’s and the T137’s in the fray. If all members of these pods were present that would be 9 Orca all together.
We often get asked how we know which whales we are looking at and what we look for when we ID our whales. Each of our boats has Catalogs on board, one for our Transient Orcas, one for the Southern Residents, one for Northern Residents and 2 fo our Humpbacks!

The catalog for our Transient, or Bigg’s Orcas is the 2019 “Photo-identification Catalogue, Population Status, and Distribution of Bigg’s Killer Whales known from Coastal Waters of British Columbia, Canada” by Towers et al.

We often refer to this catalog as the “whale bible” because it has photos of the dorsals and eye patch of most Bigg’s Orcas born before 2019.
It also contains information about each pods range and any deceased members of the pod or potential relations between pods. Below are 2 pages from this catalog showing the pods we were with today.

The T36’s are a 3 generation pod with Flapjack the Matriarch leading her second born daughter Tattertip. Tattertip has 3 kids of her own, but this family is tree is much larger than it first appears.

As Orca’s were first cataloged they were assigned numbers, T36 for instance, but Orca’s don’t travel with their family 100% of the time. Daughters split off to lead their own pods, males travel away for periods of time or sometimes it’s as simple as one of them being just out of eyesight from the researchers, so they aren’t labeled as relatives until much later.
This is the case with the T36’s and the T137’s. Through watching these pods, and seeing how much time they spend together it’s likely that these pods are actually related. In fact, it’s estimated that T36, Flapjack, is actually the mother of not only T36B (Tattertip) and T36A, but also the mother of T137 (Loon) and T99 (Bella). Because Loon and Bella were first documented traveling with their own pods it wasn’t apparent at first, but over time it’s become evident that they are likely related. Though we don’t genetically test our Orca’s, so we will never know for sure.

If Flapjack really is the mother to T137 and T99, that would make her a mother of 5, and a grandmother of at least 16 whales! That’s pretty incredible.

When looking at these fins you can start to see little nicks and notches in the dorsals that help us ID them. With the T36’s (top left) we specifically look for the notch at the tip and base of Tattertips fin, as well as the notch half way up Bhotias fin.

For the T137s (bottom left) it’s pretty easy to ID them, as Loon as a very large chunk out of the back of her dorsal. Wright also has a large notch out of their fin, but the easiest to ID is Jack. Jack is a big boy we’ve spent many trips with and he has 2 half-circle cuts out of his fine that make him stand out even amongst other large males.

During our stay with the T36’s and T137’s we got to watch them hunt sea lions, specifically Stellar Sea Lions. These Sea Lions are the largest in the world, with big males often weighing well over 2000 lbs! It can take a long time to wear these big animals down, as Sea Lions have very sharp teeth and claws and they aren’t afraid to fight back, Orcas often take their time, drawing out the hunts so the Sea Lions get very tired and easier to manage. However, this Sea Lion was not interested in being anyones lunch today as he made a bold decision to use our boat to try and get away from the whales. While we were shut down watching the hunt, the sea lion swam towards us, hoping the Orca’s would keep their distance, and it worked! The Sea lion rolled in the waters next to the boat, catching his breath and getting some strength back as the Orca’s waited in anticipation. Eventually the whales got tired of waiting for their lunch and decided to leave and look for better things and the Sea Lion eventually left as soon as the coast was clear.

Enjoy the photos below taken during the tour by Marine Naturalist Rebecca Stirling.

Jack spending some quality time with his Aunt and cousins
Left to right:
T137A Jack, T36B1 Bhotia, T36B3 Chip, T36B Tattertip

Baby orcas are often very orange, we aren’t exactly sure why though. This is Chip, who is definitely not a baby anymore, at 4 years old he’s not orange, this is just a trick of the light!

T36B, Tattertip. Can you guess how she got her name?

T36B1, Bhotia, is pretty easy to distinguish from the rest of her pod with the big notch in the middle of her fin

Can you ID the whales in this photo using the guides above?

Big boy Jack!

As usual the tours don’t end when we leave the whales. We always try and find some of the other wildlife to look at before we return to harbour. Usually this means stopping at well known seal and sea lion haul outs.
This furry pinnipeds look pretty comfy lounging out on the rocks.
Harbour seals are plentiful in our waters, around 105,000 of them make their home on the coasts of BC.
they go by many nicknames including Water puppy and Rock Sausage!

With the Herring Spawn we’re seeing lots of eagles right now as well. Juvenile bald eagles look very different from their parents, but give it 5 years and they will sport the same white head and tail feathers!

Big yawns from the California Sea Lions near Harmac. Must mean it’s time for dinner and a nap right?