March 31st - The T049 Sisters and the T137's in Active Pass
It was a gorgeous day for a tour through the Gulf Islands, though a bit chilly as we could see the snow falling on the mountains as we made our way along the east Coast of Vancouver Island. We steadily made our way south, looping around the gulf islands looking for those dark fins on the water.
We stopped briefly to see an eagle in a tree and the longer we looked the more eagles we saw. Nearly a dozen all perched in the trees watching and waiting.
After traveling quite far away we made it to Active Pass, and just as we were about to turn around we saw the dark fins rising through the water. We had found our whales at last. A tall fin broke the surface, and our Naturalist had a few guesses as to who it could belong to. After a few photos it was easy to see we were with Noah (T049A1) and his family. The T049A’s were heading north near Gabriola just the day before and now here they were, south bound through Active Pass. Van (T049B) and her kids were also with the group. The sister pair were still together, traveling and playing in the waters. with Nan’s newest addition to the T049A’s she now has 6 children with her, which is a very large pod. Most of Nan’s kids are also male, which means they won’t be too eager to leave moms side anytime soon. We must wonder if Van (T049B) has decided to come and hang out and lend a hand to Nan. Van only has 2 kids of her own, Skylar and Charchar (12 and 9 years old respectively) Van is probably able to help with the other young ones giving Nan an opportunity to focus a bit more on her baby. This group was traveling steadily, and it wasn’t long until we figured out why. They were chasing sea lions. There were plenty of sea lions fishing in Active Pass today and the orca managed to separate one from the rest and chased it down the shores of Mayne Island. The orca would split up into groups and all would go still. In the blink of an eye a whale would emerge from the water, throwing their whole body out as they lunged for the sea lion. Several youngsters would follow up, diving over top of their older sibling. The sea lion splashing about as the waters calmed. This pattern of high activity followed by a lull continued for nearly the whole hour we were there. With so many whales involved in the hunt you would think it would be quick, but in the end the sea lion got away and the whales continued south along the island shore.
Why was the hunt unsuccessful? There are many possible reasons why they didn’t get their lunch today. The sea lion could have gotten into shallow waters where it was just too much hassle to go after, or maybe they simply got bored of this one and moved on to the next.
Orcas are incredibly smart animals and excellent pack hunters; it’s how they earned the nickname ‘Wolves of the Sea’. Depending on how hungry the pod is the matriarch may let the kids lead the hunt, testing their ability to lead a hunt can show them if their daughters are prepared to lead their own pod one day and lets mom evaluate her pods abilities. It’s also a great opportunity to teach youngsters new hunting techniques. In this hunt it seemed like the whales would rush the sea lion and then back off, regroup, and re-enter the fray. it’s fun to imagine the young ones going for the Sea Lion and missing, just to have mom call them over and give them some pointers before sending them back in for another chance. There was so much action going on it was hard to keep track of who was where, but generally it appeared as if Noah and the larger boys were just circling the area, preventing the sea lion from escaping while the young ones brushed up on proper sea lion hunting strategies.
In any event the whales didn’t seem discouraged by their lost lunch as they picked up speed and headed south, probably looking for a bit of an easier meal.
We ended up leaving this group and started our journey back to Nanaimo when we came across a second group of orca entering Active Pass! Thanks to T137A Jack, who has very distinct nicks out of his dorsal we were quickly able to ID this pod. We didn’t stay with the T137s for long since we needed to make the journey home, but it was still great to see them travelling together in the pass.
As we headed home we knew we had seen a lot of whales, but it turned out it was even more special than we had known! On this day there was a record breaking number of Biggs orca in the Salish sea, and we got to see a bunch of them! The more we see of these animals the more you come to love and appreciate their presence in the waters surrounding Nanaimo. We can’t wait to see how this population continues to how and assert its presence in our waters!
Please enjoy the photos taken by our marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker below.
T049A Nan and her new calf surfacing.
An orca on the hunt!
T049A1 Noah (left) and T049B3 Charchar (right) surfacing together.
Hunting orca tend to have a lot of surface activity since they try and stun their prey!
T049A Nan (right), T049A4 Neptune (middle) and T049A4 Nebula (left) surfacing together.
T049A6, the new calf practicing with the sea lion hunt!
One of the younger whales getting in on the action!
More surface action!
One of the female whales trying to stun the prey!
You can tell they are female by looking at their underside!
T137A Jack (right) surfacing with T137B Tempest (left).
T137A Jack surfacing in Active Pass.
T049A1 Noah (back) and T049A3 Nat transiting Active Pass
Noah and Nat again!
Family photo! This group is the T049As and T049Bs in Active Pass.
Noah (front) and a sibling travelling together.
T049A Nan.
T049A Nan with her calf surfacing beside her.
Noah (left) Nan (middle) and T049A6 (right) together.
Noah (left) and Nan (right).
Nan and T049A6 travelling closely together.