April 9th - T049A's and T049B's
It was a rainy day as Kula and Cascadia left the harbour, both filled with excited guests eager to find whales. We traveled south through Dodd Narrows into the protected waters of the gulf islands and split up to cover more area. Kula headed towards Sansum Narrows while Cascadia traveled along Valdez Island towards Porlier Pass.
It took a while but the captain on Cascadia spotted blows in the distance along the shores of Galiano Island. A group of orca were heading north so we moved out of their path and shut down to see where they would go. Kula quickly joined up and both boats got to watch the whales as they traveled north along the shores, spread out a little bit.
We had our suspicions on who these whales were and after a few good photos it confirmed our guess. It was the T049A’s and the T049B’s again. This family has been traveling up and down through the golf islands for several days now.
It’s great to see this extended family still traveling together so frequently, especially since this means we get to spend more time with Nan’s newest baby!
Nan is still traveling with her eldest son Noah, whose tall dorsal always steals the show whenever he appears. He makes it easy to track the whales even from a distance with his dorsal towering nearly 2-3 feet taller than even the larger females in the group.
The only member of the pod who wasn’t present is T049A2, Jude. Noah’s younger brother has been absent from the family for a little while, off traveling with other pods in the Salish Sea. Jude got a taste of the lone male life last summer when he and Noah traveled away from mom for several weeks. Even after Noah returned to the family Jude kept on traveling with other whales for a while. Jude will likely return to the family once all the commotion around the baby has died down. With Nan and Van’s families traveling together it brings their pod numbers up to 9 whales, without Jude present, which is a very large pod. Feeding that many whales takes a lot of work every day and with some much going on Jude might have been feeling overwhelmed and left to do his own thing for a bit. Maybe once Van breaks off from Nan’s pod Jude will return, or maybe Jude’s decided to become a bachelor and travel the sea on his own. Only time will tell for sure.
Below are some photos taken by marine naturalists Rebecca Stirling and Rebeka Pirker, enjoy!
The whole family surfacing together! Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
From left to right: T049B Van, T049A1 Noah, and T049B2 Skyler. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Another family shot! Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Coastal mountains through Porlier pass. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Harbour Seals. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Entering into Dodd Narrows. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Amazing the difference in weather. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Sea Lions at Harmac. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
Photo by Rebeka Pirker.
A couple Rhinoceros auklets. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Our whales passing by a lucky watcher from shore! Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
T049A1 Noah, T049A Nan, and T049B Van with one of the calves. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
From left to right: T049B Van, T049A1 Noah, and T049B2 Skyler. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
T049B Van, T049B4, T049A1 Noah, and T049B2 Skyler. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
T049A Nan with a young whale. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
The coastal mountains through porlier pass. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
One of the young whales in the group. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
T049A1 Noah. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Steller Sea Lions hauled out near Valdes Island. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Steller Sea Lions at the haul out. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Harbour Seals at the Flat Top Islands. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Bald Eagle in Flight. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
More harbour seals! Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Cormorants on Gabriola Island. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Cormorants on Gabriola Island. Photo by Rebecca Stirling.