On the 20th we left the harbour with high hopes and were not disappointed. We found our Orcas around Neck Point, a popular walking loop on the coast of Nanaimo. There were about 10 whales hanging out on this day - a little T-party in the Strait. T-parties are always exciting, often filled with hunting and socializing behaviour.
What exactly is a T-party you ask? In the Orca community we have different terms for large gatherings of whales. If a you see a large gathering of Southern Residents it’s called a Super Pod, but with Bigg’s Orcas they are T-parties. This is when multiple pods come together, often for socializing but sometimes for hunting as well. These parties can last a few hours, up to several weeks!

In recent research we’ve found that dolphins, of which Orcas are the largest in the world, actually have names for each other and best friends! This could be why some of our T-parties last longer than others. Imagine if you went several months without talking to your best friend? It might take quite a while to catch up with each other.

During a T-party these pods, who may or may not be blood relatives, will travel, share food, breed and more importantly, share information. Matriarchs are a wealth of knowledge and these social events allow matriarchs from different pods to share information about where they’ve been, the good hunting sites these days, and even introduce new members of the family since the last time they met. Males will use T-parties as an opportunity to show off for the ladies, and if they are are lucky they might even get the chance to create little whales of their own.
Young whales play, chasing each other and forming their own friendships with others outside of their family, learning from others and expending extra energy. Teenage daughters also use this time to learn as much as they can, not just from their own mom but from the other matriarchs present during the party.

In our T-party today we had the T124D’s, T071’s and T087.

The first of the 3 pods consists of Matriarch T124D, Field, born in 1996. She travels with her firstborn child, Salish II (T124D1), and her newest child T124D3 who was born this year! This little one is still bright orange and is very easy to spot amongst its peers. See if you can find it in the photos below!

The T071’s are a large pod and are not seen in our waters frequently.
Matriarch T071, Bonkers, was born in 1980. The T071’s are a 3 generation pod - meaning Bonkers is a grandmother!
Bonkers travels with her kids T071B, Hood, who is 22 this year, T071C, Jared, T071D, Heise, and T071E, Sutton. Hood has 2 little ones of her own, T071B1, Zengo, born in 2013 and T071B2, Tasli.
Jared, Heise, Sutton, and Tasli all got their names from Orca experts who have worked on catalogs and spend a lot of their time on the water researching these animals and the humpbacks in the area. It’s every whale watchers dream to have a whale named after them.

The last whale traveling with these pods today was T087 Harbeson. Harbeson is one of the lone bull whales that travels without a pod. Lone males can come about for a few reasons, but the most likely reason is that they have lost their mother. Male orcas typically stay with their moms for the rest of her life and are known to be big momma’s boys. When she eventually passes away males will sometimes find another pod to join, but they may also decide to just be by themselves for a while. Harbeson’s mom passed away some time ago and he’s spent his years traveling alone or with other pods from time to time. Lone males aren’t always alone, as we saw today. They often join up with any pods passing by as more whales helps with hunting, but being the social creatures they are, social contact is needed for them so T-parties are a good fix of social interactions for the lone whales.

Below are some of the photos taken by Marine Naturalist Rebecca Stirling during the tour

Whales, forests, and the ocean… you can’t get much more British Columbian than that!

March 20th - Orcas out of the harbour

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