April 30th - The T023's return with new friends

Kula left the harbour on the last tour of April, scanning the water for blows, dorsals and flukes. With the humpbacks returning to the Salish Sea there’s no telling who we will find on our trips. As Kula approached Porlier Pass they spotted a blow and we knew we had whales. Our marina naturalist got to work on IDing the whales and it didn’t take long to spot some familiar fins. It was the T023’s again, except there were no T018’s with them this time. Instead they were traveling with the T075B’s today. Another thing worth noting, T023 herself has returned to her daughters side. Over the last several encounters with the T023D’s T023 was not present. Janice (T023) typically travels with her daughter Axle (T023D) and her grandchildren, however, Janice had been MIA for the last while. Causing some people to wonder if maybe she had passed away. When an orcas pod has been seen multiple times without a member it’s often an indicator that that family member has passed on. There are notable exceptions, like when young males go through puberty they will often strike out on their own, often temporarily but sometimes permanently. However, when a matriarch goes missing it can raise some flags. In Janice’s case she was either out doing her own thing, or hanging out with her other daughter. Janice has a 2 surviving daughters, Axle who she typically travels with, and Cindy (T023C) who has 3 children of her own. Cindy is older than Axle and so it makes sense that Cindy travels off in her own pod, whereas Axle has no real reason to leave moms side. Theres no one else competing for moms attention at this point.
Orca form life-long bonds with their family, and matriarchs often check in on their daughters or grandchildren over time. So it’s very possible that Janice was just out visiting the rest of her family. Cindy isn’t often seen in our waters and we’ve heard no reports of them, so we won’t know for sure that’s where Janice was, we’re just glad to see her back with her family and doing well.
The other pod traveling with the T023’s today was the T075B’s lead by matriarch Pebbles, a young matriarch only 27 years old this year. She travels with her 3 offspring, Son Jasper (T075B2) and her youngest two, Rubble (T075B3) and T075B4 born in 2021 who does not have a nickname yet.

These 2 pods were traveling very quickly through Porlier Pass, porpoising through the water on a mission.

After hanging out with our whales we toured back through the islands, stopping to see harbour seals and sea lions along the rocky coast line before returning to the harbour.
Below are some of the best photos taken during the tour by our marine naturalist Val Watson.