Today we headed out and within 15minutes we spotted a group of Orca’s just off of Pipers lagoon making their way south. The group was identified as the T049B’s Van and her daughters Skyler and Charchar. Traveling with the T049B’s was Jude(T049A2), who has been traveling away from his family for a while now. Jude is actually Van’s nephew and for a little while Noah, Jude’s older brother, was traveling with Van as well. It is always a wonderful treat when the whales are so close to home. Cascadia was first on scene and was in for a splashtasic time with the whales. The sun was out but the winds were strong and while hanging out with orcas Cascadia got to taste of the salty sea water. It was a great way to make sure everyone on board was awake to experience the beauty that is the killer whale.

We had a few close encounters with the T049B’s with them popping up right behind Cascadia at one point within a 10m of boat and not far off the bow of Kula. Whales are unpredictable under water, and so knowing where they will surface is hard. When whales surface within 200m of the boat, if it’s safe to do so we move away, but when they are this close we shut down completely until the whales are a safe distance from the vessels. It’s hard to really get an idea of how large these animals are until they are close. When in the ocean there is nothing to compare the size too, however when the animals are close to the boat it is a lot easier to tell and get an idea how big they really are.

The photos below were taken by Marine Naturalist Rebecca and Keagan

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Orca Killer Whale Transient Biggs T049B — T049B Van (back) with offspring T049B2 Skyler Photo by Keagan Sjolie

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Orca Killer Whale Transient Biggs T049A2 Jude — Photo by Rebecca Stirling

T049A2 Jude (above) has been traveling away from his own mom for some time. Van is actually Jude’s aunt. Jude has gotten quite beat up in the last while and is covered in all kinds of new scars. His dorsal is also getting impressively large and starting to lean. At 15 years old Jude still have about 6 more years of growing before he’ll reach adult sized. He’s going to be one massive boy in the future!

Today Kula got an extra treat when they managed to find a humpback off Valdes Island later in the day. The humpback was doing circles for quite a while before eventually heading Southeast not long after Cascadia got on scene. We were working on Identifying the humpback, which proved difficult as the whale never flukes for us. Humpbacks can sometimes be ID’ed by their dorsal fins, but every spring our whales return with new markings and we often get new whales in the area. Some stay for the summer and we have more chances to take photos and ID them as the season goes on, but some only stop by to refuel before continuing north towards Alaska.

The humpbacks are returning to our waters from the tropical wintering grounds of Mexico, Hawaii, and Central America. The whales typically leave our cold waters in October and November, and begin to return around April and May the following year. There’s a lot of speculation about why humpbacks migrate, but unfortunately no one on staff speaks humpback and so we can’t directly ask them. Biologist have speculated that they migrate because of food supplies, as we have an abundance of krill and phytoplanktons in our waters int he summer. However, there are plenty of fish and small creatures to be feeding on in the winters as well. Reports over the last few winters have indicated that several whales are not even making the migration south, and instead are choosing to remain north for the breeding season. This leads to more questions! Were they not able to find enough food during the summer, and so don’t have the energy to travel? Are they young males or females who might not be sexually mature, and so have decided to save the energy and stay in the feeding grounds? Did they sustain an injury that prevented the long travel? Or is it primarily older females, or females who recently calved and need a break, who stay put at the all-you-can-eat winter buffet? It’ll take a lot more studying and many more winters to see what demographic of whales are staying and try and figure out why they stay.
Another possibility that has been suggested is that they migrate to avoid predators. In our waters the Bigg’s orca are mammal hunters, so they do predate on humpbacks. Calves are a prime target as they are small, and if a pod can separate mom and calf it would make for a tasty meal. This feat would require a very large T-party to accomplish though, as separating mom and calf is a struggle in it’s own. Mother humpbacks are fiercely protective of their babies and will fight back. In the tropical waters there are still predators to watch for, but they humpbacks gather in large numbers and everyone knows there is safety in numbers. With so many adult whales predators would have to be very brave to try and take a young humpback.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Humpback Migration Baleen Dorsal fin Fluke — Photo by Keagan Sjolie

During every tour we make an effort to stop for wildlife that isn’t whales as well. There are so many beautiful creatures on our coastline and getting to watch them in their natural habitats is a blessing. Today we stopped for some California sea lions relaxing on the logs of the Nanaimo pulp mill. Along with some Stellar sea lions on stinky rock and along the shores of Entrance Island.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Pinniped Harbour Seal pup — Photo by Rebecca Stirling

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch sea gull bird watch — Photo by Rebecca Stirling

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Pinniped Sea lion Steller Eared seal — Photo by Rebecca Stirling

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Salish Sea PNW Tourism Whale Watch Bird Watch Gabriola Island Cormorant Double Crested Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant — Photo by Rebecca Stirling

April 29th - Orcas off Piper's

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