April 28th - Adventure across the Strait

Today we left the harbour heading off to Entrance Island to follow up on a report of a humpback just off the coast around 9am. By the time we had gotten to Entrance just after 12, the whale was gone. Afterwards we went across the straight towards Vancouver after a report of the T137’s and T036. We arrived on scene just outside of UBC (University of British Coulumbia), Jack (T137A) was very noticeable due to his very large dorsal fin. Jack was traveling with the rest of the T137 and the T036’s.

Male dorsal fins can grow up to 6ft tall making it the largest known dorsal fin in the animal kingdom. This also makes the dorsal fin larger than most people. The male’s dorsal fin tends to be straighter than the females smaller curved dorsal fin.

The 2 pods today are well known to us, with the T137’s being a pod we spent a lot of time with in March. This pod is a family of 4, T137 Loon is Jack’s mom, and Jack has 2 younger sisters T137B Tempest and T137D Wright. The second pod there was the T036’s. The matriarch Flapjack travels with her daughter T036B Tattertip, her granddaughters T036B1 Bhotia, and T036B2 Greenfelder and grandson T036B3 Chip.

While out we also saw a few Harbour Porpoises traveling quickly. The harbour porpoises recognize boats and typically run away from them. It feels like their running away from us on “porpoise”. The harbour porpoise, unlike other porpoises, do not approach boats as they are very shy animals. Adult porpoises typically weigh between 135 - 170lb and are around 5 - 5.5ft long. The Harbour Porpoise primarily schools of fish, usually herring and mackerel however, on occasions, they will eat squid and octopus. A large threat to the harbour porpoise is getting caught in fishing gear and underwater noise as the noise can disturb their communication and their echo location which they use to hunt.

After leaving the orca’s we headed back across the straight towards Valdes Island to see some harbour seals and steller sea lions on Stinky rock. We then headed down through Gabriola pass and made our way to Dodd Narrows. We ended our trip at the Gabriola cliffs before heading back to Nanaimo. We also had an amazing amount of surf scooters in a long line right where the water changed color. Our estimate was 500 surf scoters on the line right off “Stinky rock”.

Photos below were taken by Marine Naturalist Keagan

T137A Jack with a friend

Matriarch T137 Loon

T036 Flapjack and family

T036 Flapjack

T137 Loon followed by T36B1 Bhotia and T137D Wright

Matriarch T036 Flapjack

T137 Jack with a friend

Harbour seal pups are always adorable

We are still running our daily tour at noon every day until May 15th!
We will be switching to 2 departure times, 10:30am and 3:30pm on May 15th offering more opportunities to see our beautiful wildlife.
You can book on either of our vessels, both come with a washroom a captain and an educated marine naturalist to answer any of your questions.
Book over the phone at 250-667-5177, at our waterfront office 5-90 Front street Nanaimo, or through our website to start your Salish Sea adventure