March 11th - T18's near Saanich Inlet/ Cowichan Bay
Most days we start our tours with nothing but hope and fresh eyes, scanning the waters and looking for the dorsals and blows at the surface, and some days we get lucky and have shore reports to go off of. Today we were fortunate to have the latter, as we boarded Kula we already had word that there was a pod of Orca moving south near Cowichan Bay, heading for Mill Bay.
We departed as soon as possible, heading through Dodd’s Narrows and into the Gulf Islands. It was a pretty windy day so we were thankful for the cover from the winds in the islands. Traveling through Sansum Narrows, which sits between Salt Spring island and Vancouver Island, is always beautiful. The rocks and forests rise up on either side of you, blocking the wind and providing incredible views.
As we got to Mill Bay all eyes were scanning and we soon spotted some familiar fins breaking the surface. We had 4 Orcas, one of our regular pods! The T18/19’s. This 3 generation pod is seen frequently every year as they travel through the gulf islands. Today Esperanza was leading her daughter and grandsons through the channels as they made their way into the Saanich Inlet. They were travelling slowly, surfacing in pairs. Galiano’s large fin breaking the surface, Esperanza in tow. As they slowly sunk below the glassy waters Spouters fin, followed closely by mom, Nootka, rose to the top, their misty breath lingering in the air as they silently slipped below the waves.
The pod traveled like this for a a bit, relaxing it seemed. They may have just finished a hunt, or maybe they were tired From traveling all morning.
Turns out this was the pod that we were hoping to find the day before, all the way up by Denman Island. In less than 24 hours the pod had traveled nearly 100 miles to get to the mouth of the inlet.
We continued watching as the family slowly spread out, as these 4 usually do, when hunting mode is engaged. They space out to cover more area underwater, and as usual Galiano decided that was a great time to make sure we weren’t up to anything suspicious. He appeared on our right side, still some distance away, before disappearing for a time and reappearing on our left. At some point he had passed under us, likely checking us out to make sure we weren’t going to be a danger to his pod, before he slowly continued on his way with his family.
After leaving our pod heading South in the Inlet we turned and began our journey home. We stopped to check out some fuzzy Harbour seals on the rocks near Thetis Island and then again at Harmac to see the California Sea Lions, and a few very large Male Stellar Sea Lions, lounging on the log booms.
Below are some photos of the tour taken by marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker
Spouter with the remains of their lunch…can you guess what it is?
T019C Spouter with mother T019 Nootka.
