May 11th - T-party at Bowen Island

As Keta pushed off the docks at noon on the 11th there was a report of orca heading south near Bowen Island. We travelled across the Strait of Georgia hoping the whales would stick around long enough for us to see them. As we approached Bowen Island we could see the blows of orca! After a while on scene it became apparent we were watching the same T-party as the day before, with a few new friends. Eider (the matriarch of the T086A’s) and Field (the matriarch of the T124D’s) seemed to have taken their families into Howe Sound overnight and returned with friends in tow. These friends were easy to ID as the T018’s.

T018’s

T086A’s

T124D’s

T018 (♀) - Esperanza <1955
T019 (♀) - Nootka <1965
T019B (♂) - Galiano 1995
T019C (♂) - Spouter 2001

T086A (♀) - Eider 1988
T086A1 (♀) - Nahanni 2001
T086A3 (♀) - Tyndall 2011
T086A4 (♀) - Akia 2016

T124D (♀) - Field 1996
T124D1 - Salish II 2014
T124D3 - 2022

T-parties are often discussed as being exciting events filled with play and hunting, but sometimes whales just travel. Even though our whales today were “just travelling” it allows for an interesting look into their social dynamics. During this travelling T-party the young whales were all over Galiano. Little fins seemed to always be in his shadow, including the newest addition to the party, T124D3, who was born just this year and still sports the orange coloration all baby orca have. With all the kids hanging around with Galiano this has us pondering why? Was Galiano the designated babysitter for this T-party? Was it involuntary, with the little ones being so in awe of his size? Or is there a chance Galiano may be their father? We don’t know, and likely never will! We only know who the mother of our orca are, as we don’t genetically test them, so the fathers’ identity will forever remain a mystery to us. Either way, it’s always very cute to see such a large male with so many little fins following him around.

Photos by Marine Naturalist Janine Van Der Linden.

6 year old Akia dashing through the water

T019B Galiano with some of the younger orca

T019B Galiano and T124D3! This calf has the telltale orange colouration we see on young whales for the first part of their lives.

Sneaky whales! When there are a lot of female or young whales, in a group it can be hard to pick out all the individuals. As we sat writing this blog we saw these two photos and noticed the eye patch of the lead whale didn’t match anyone from the T018’s, T086A’s, or the T124D’s. So who are they? T071B Hood! Hood has a unique eye patch, but not a unique dorsal fin. In fact, most of the females in these pods have very indistinct dorsal fins. With no notches and no clear view of her saddle patch, it’s easy to see why she was mistaken for Nahanni or Salish II. After looking through the other photos we think we also found one of her calves, T071B1 Zengo, born in 2013. Also in the mix should be T071B2 Tasli, born in 2018. Tasli would still be small, she would be the second-youngest one in this T-party. She was likely hanging out with Galiano and the other young ones and hard to spot because her fin would still be quite small. The ID catalogue we use to ID the Bigg’s orca also doesn’t have an image of Tasli’s right side, as when the book was published she would have been less than a year old and likely only seen a handful of times prior.

T071B’s

T071B (♀) - Hood 2000
T071B1 - Zengo 2013
T071B2 - Tasli 2018

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Jilann LechnerMay 16, 2022Comment