April 10th - Playing in Porlier Pass

Our zodiac Cascadia left the harbour on our daily tour, keeping their eyes open for fins and blows on the water. There was an early morning report of whales traveling south near Porlier pass, which separates Valdez Island and Galiano Island.
Our captain worked with a few other whale watching companies to coordinate search routes and find the whales. Orcas are pretty tricky to follow sometimes as they can change direction quickly. So even though we knew these whales were heading south, they could very easily turn around and go north, or head out east towards Vancouver, and once they got to the pass they could slip into the gulf islands. Having multiple boats helping to look for the animals made it easier to find them.

We first spotted them outside Porlier, where they seemed to have stopped to mill about, circling in the currents of the pass. Our naturalist was able to get some ID photos and we used those to figure out this was the T065B’s and some friends. The waters were pretty choppy in Porlier Pass today and the whales were moving sporadically and hard to track, so we only managed to get good photos of Chunk and her kids.

Chunk is the matriarch of her pod, traveling with her two boys Birdsall (2011) and Nettle (2019). It’s not uncommon for orca to gather in small parties for hunting or socializing. It seemed like these whales were having fun enjoying social time and playing in the currents outside Porlier pass.

Enjoy the photos taken by Marine Naturalist Rebecca Stirling during today’s tour.

T065B1 Birdsall surfacing in the Strait of Georgia.

Pelagic Cormorant in flight - they have distinct white patches behind their wings.

Double-crested Cormorants