All 3 of our boats prepared to head out to the Salish Sea in search of whales. It’s always nice when we have our whole fleet on the water as it means more eyes scanning for whales, and more chance of finding them. Kula started her trip by heading North around Gabriola Island while Cascadia and Keta went through Dodd Narrows to scan Trincomali and Stuart Channel. As our boats were scanning the shore lines we got a call that one of the other companies out of Vancouver had picked up a pod of Orca near the mouth of the Fraser River.

Our boats headed across the strait and arrived on scene to find some familiar fins. The T018’s and T023D’s were still hanging out together, circling in the strait after what we heard was a Steller sea lion hunt. We watched as our whales circled and socialized after lunch, Galiano spent some time lifting his huge tail from the water and showing off. Male orca have very large tails, and when they lift their tails from the water the edges actually curl under.
There was so much zig zagging and movement it was hard to keep track of where each pod was. After some time we realized there had to be a third pod in the mix, as some whales had turned and began heading towards Vancouver but we still had several whales with the boats. Quickly checking over photos it became apparent that there was a sneaky 3rd pod in the mix. The T037’s had joined the party. Rocky III’s fin is very distinct and made it easy to pick her out of some of the photos we had taken of the action. For a female orca, Rocky’s fin is very large and wide. She also has no discernible notches in her fin which makes her appear like a male orca in their late teens. Another tell Rocky has is her saddle patch. While she has some slight scarring very low on her saddle patch, it’s relatively clean with little to no scaring near the to, which is what we photograph more often. Seeing a tall clean dorsal with little to no scaring is almost always a sign we have Rocky in the group. Because of the shape of her fin, she is often affectionately referred to as “pizza fin”. She travels with her daughter Harald (1998) and her grandson Lance (2012).

We watched these whales for an hour, playing and socializing for an hour we left them be to enjoy their day and we headed back to Nanaimo. Not before taking a stop at some well known seal and sea lion haul outs to get a good look at our furry pinnipeds. We also stopped along the bluffs of Gabriola Island to see our Cormorants as they continue preparing their nests for their eggs.

Below are some of the photos taken by Marine Naturalists Rebeka Pirker, Val Watson, and Janine Van der Linden.