It was a sunny day as Kula left the Harbor in search for whales. We began our adventuring heading south into the Gulf Island through Dodd’s Narrows. We love traveling through Dodd’s as it’s such a beautiful place filled with all kinds of wildlife above and below the waves. After stopping to see the scenery we continued south through the Gulf Islands, passing through Ruxton pass our captain Val thought she saw blows in the distance, so we stopped to wait. After nearly 10 minutes we decided to press on. We stopped shortly after to look at some Harbour Seals hauled out on the rocks. There were plenty of seals lounging in the sun and even a few shiny heads bobbing in the water. After leaving the Rock Sausages we travelled all the way through Trinchomali Channel to the southern point of Salt Spring Island before turning and heading north through Sansum Narrows. This beautiful channel is in a valley between Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island with tall walls and lush trees on either side. Still though, no whales to be seen.

We continued on, heading North, when we got a call from our office that someone had seen Orcas near Gabriola Island. We adjusted our course and headed for Dodd’s Narrows once again. As we approached the Narrows we saw a large fin surface, followed by a smaller one, just on the other side of the Narrows. We slowed our boat and made our approach. We quickly realized we had a pod of 4 whales, 2 large males and 2 females. It was the T18/19’s! We see this pod frequently every year as they travel up and down the Gulf Islands and all over the Strait of Georgia.

This pod is led by Matriarch Esperenza (T18). Typically, orca pods consist of the matriarch and her offspring, but the T018’s are a 3 generation pod! That’s right, Esperenza travels with her daughter, Nootka (T19) and her 2 grandsons Galiano (T19B) and Spouter (T19C). Esperenza was born sometime before 1955, making her at least 67 years old! Her daughter Nootka was born around 1965 making her around 57 years old, with Galiano being born in 1995 (27 years old) and Spouter in 2001 (21 years old)
Orcas typically go through menopause, just like humans, around their late 40’s. That means Nootka and Esperenza have both passed through menopause and won’t be having any more calves.

This pod has some very interesting family dynamics. When they travel they tend to split into 2 groups, with Esperenza and Galiano traveling closely together, and Nootka and Spouter traveling together. They are usually within range of each other, but still scout and travel some distance apart. This has had professionals wondering if Esperenza may be Galiano’s mom instead of Nootka. Esperenza would have been quiet old if this were the case. Since we don’t genetically test our Orcas we will likely never know for sure whether Galiano is Nootka's son or brother. One of the many mysteries of our orcas.

The orcas traveled along the shores of Gabriola Island chasing sea lions and swimming amongst the log booms before Galiano and Esperenza split and made their way to the shores of Protection Island. We lost sight of Spouter and Nootka as they traveled slightly further east to Galiano and Esperenza.

The Orcas took us almost all the way back to our Harbour, making for a short trip home.

Photos today were taken by Marine Naturalist Rebeka Pirker.

March 4th - T18's Right Outside Nanaimo

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