March 13th - A Brand New Baby!
As we set sail today on the beautiful waters of the Salish Sea we were heading for the North Eastern shores of Gabriola Island. Gabriola Island is a large gulf island that sits just outside the Nanaimo harbour and is home to not only humans, but a ton of wildlife. We spend a lot of our tours following her coastline, looking for whales, seals, eagles and other interesting animals. On todays tour we were looking for whales that had been seen from the shores of Gabriola. Mike Campbell, one of the owners, was out early in the morning with his binoculars scouring the surface for fins and alerted us as soon as he saw them break the water.
We raced over to find 6 whales traveling south along Gabriola. Their breath rising through the air as their dorsals broke the surface of the water. We snapped some photos and using one of the catalogs on board our Marine Naturalist, Rebecca Stirling, was able to ID these whales as the T49A’s.
This pod is one we see often on our travels through the Salish Sea.
The matriarch of this pod is T49A herself, Nan, born in 1986, Nan is 36 years old and has 6 beautiful children:
T49A1 Noah (♂ 2001)
T49A2 Jude (♂ 2007)
T49A3 Nat (♂ 2011)
T49A4 Neptune (♂ 2014)
T49A5 Nebula (♀ 2017)
T49A6 (2022)
Nan recently had a calf, T49A6 was born within the last month! It’s always very exciting when we see those beautiful squishy orange faces emerging from the water. There are several new calves in the Bigg’s Orca community this year, and it’s only March! We’re excited to see how many new babies are added to our catalog over the next months, as Orcas don’t have a breeding or calving season the young ones can spring up any time of the year.
Though Bigg’s Orcas typically travel as a family unit, today one member of the family was missing. T49A1, Noah, was nowhere to be seen. Fear not! Noah is doing just fine, he’s just not traveling with mom right now. Noah has been off on his own adventures and traveling with other pods recently, which actually isn’t too odd. If you’re an avid reader of our blogs, you may remember last summer Noah and his brother Jude went on an adventure through the Salish Sea without the rest of the family. The Bachelor Brothers traveled around Gabriola Island and across through Howe sound for several weeks, eventually joining another sibling duo, the T77’s, before returning to mom in the fall. With the arrival of a new sibling, T49A6, Noah may be feeling a little crowded with 5 siblings, and decided he’d rather hang out with some friends for a bit. Another possibility is that Noah is 21 years old this year, he’s a full grown adult male orca. Which means he could be out there looking for his next girlfriend and looking to father his own calves. Regardless of why Noah has decided to travel away from the family, we look forward to seeing his big fin return to the pod in the future.
Today our pod was traveling south and heading for the Flat Top islands, a place that is usually loaded with delicious Harbour seals. We traveled with out whales, enjoying the sunshine and calm waters as long as we could, but eventually we had to bid them a farewell and continue on. We stopped in the Flat top islands at Saturnina Island, to take a look at the Harbour Seals that the Orca were likely also looking for. The Rock Sausages were perfectly comfortable, hauled out on the shores bathing in the sunlight.
We also made a stop at the Entrance Island lighthouse to see some Stellar Sea Lions on the shores. Female Stellar Sea lions average around 600 lbs and males reaching weights of over 2000 lbs, but none of them are a match for the mighty Golden Lab! The lighthouse keeper of entrance Island has a Golden Lab that patrols the shores and often gives chase to the Sea Lions. Today the Golden Lab wasn’t too interested in the sea lions, but they were very cautious of him as the watched from the shores and at one point they got a bit too nervous and everyone jumped in the water, barking and splashing as they watched the dog from the waters waiting until it was safe to return to the shore. Watching this game of chicken is always entertaining, a dog who doesn’t realize how small he is, and sea lions who’d rather take to the water than put up a fight. The animal kingdom truly is a wild place.
At the end of today’s tour we also stopped by the Bluffs of Gabriola Island to see if the Cormorants had returned to roost yet. It appears that some of the birds are returning, though slowly, as they will start to repair and build their nests for this years clutch. Some of the males are already starting to sport their breeding plumage. We can’t wait to see the flocks return over the coming weeks and look forward to seeing the tiny faces of the chicks appears soon.
