On May 10th Kula, our semi-covered vessel, left the harbour, heading across the Strait of Georgia for the shores of Vancouver. We arrived on scene to find two pods of Bigg’s orca travelling north off the coast near UBC.
These two pods were identified as the T086A’s and the T124D’s.

The T086A’s have been hanging out for the last week in our waters, which is quite surprising as prior to our encounter with them on the 6th we had only seen these whales 2 times, once in 2018 and once in early 2019. According to sightings data, this pod tends to spend a lot of time in the Comox region and further north along the island. We are happy to see these whales hanging out in our waters, but it leads to the question, why? Since the early 70’s, Bigg’s orca have been watched and visually tracked up and down the BC coastline. Reports of pods and their travels are noted, and while the pods can freely swim anywhere from Alaska to California, it becomes apparent when viewing the sightings data that different pods have their own preferred regions. Some pods stick to the Northern BC and Alaska range, making rare trips to the southern ends of the Salish Sea, while others prefer the San Juan Islands, Howe Sound, or even our gulf islands off the west side of Vancouver Island.
In the animal kingdom, it’s well known that animals operate on cycles. Cycles in population sizes and migrations are 2 of the most notable, so it is possible that each orca pod operates on its own cycle as well. Spending months or years in one region before travelling to spend time in another. With how social orca area as well, it could be that Eider has friends in other pods who don’t frequent the north very often, and it’s just her turn to visit her friends in the south; sort of like when relatives take turns travelling to visit family in different parts of the country. On this particular trip, Eider was hanging out with T124D Field, a matriarch we see several times a year in our waters. Field has a new calf with her this year, T124D3. This little baby still has orange tones in their eyepatch and belly, which will fade over the next year or two until their colour more closely matches mom.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch Conservation Salish Sea PNW Pacific Ocean North West Tourism Ecotourism Killer Whale T086A T124D

T124D3 was seen surfacing very close to mom in this photo. Baby orca are very hard to get photos of, because they are usually glued to mom which means if they are on the wrong side of her we might not even see them. Not to mention, when young orca surface to breathe they often throw most of their body out of the water. These young whales aren’t in full control of their buoyancy yet, unlike mom and siblings who can surface slowly and gracefully to breathe, these little ones often look like their trying to sprout wings and take off! While it makes it difficult to photograph because it happens so fast, when you go get a photo of them it almost always has that adorable eye patch in it.

Looks can be deceiving!

We know this boat looks very close to the whales, but as a licensed whale watching vessel this boat follows the same regulations we do on the water. When taking photos on the water with telephoto lenses there is a lot of compressions that happen. We are over 200m from these whales in this photo, even though it looks like we are only about 50m away. The boat in the background is also over 200m from the whales! How do we know? We keep range finders on all our vessels that our captains use to keep track of how close we are to the whales, and other boats. Measuring distance on the water isn’t easy, and only relying on your eyes can lead to errors in judgment, so using the proper tools is important. This helps us keep the whales safe and ensures that we never get in their way.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch Conservation Salish Sea PNW Pacific Ocean North West Tourism Ecotourism Killer Whale T086A T124D T086A3 Tyndall — T086A3 Tyndall has a large notch that makes her easy to ID on the water

After leaving our orca we headed towards Gabriola Island to look for some pinnipeds. During every tour, we try and find haul-outs of Pacific harbour seals and sea lions, as these 2 species are very important to our sea and to our Bigg’s orca. Both Harbour seals and sea lions are part of the diet of our Bigg’s orca, as well as porpoises and other whales. Without these pinnipeds in our waters, we would also lose our orca.
It’s coming up to the time when our Steller sea lions will be migrating north for the breeding season, while California sea lions will head south to, you guessed it, California!
Every year without fail a small group of female and young male Steller sea lions decides not to go to the breeding grounds. Instead, they hang out on a buoy off of the Flat Top Islands known as UM buoy. This buoy helps boaters navigate the waters and is used as a point of reference, or a bed if you’re a sea lion. Only 5 minutes away from this buoy is the “stinky rocks” where a lot of the Steller sea lions have been resting these past few weeks. Though the islands remain, for some unexplained reason, the sea lions abandon them around this time of year in favour of the metal bed. We can’t imagine it’s very comfortable, but we sometimes find over a dozen sea lions piled on top, all fighting for the top spot and a comfy place to sleep. It seems the gathering has begun as there was a handful of them resting in the sun on this trip.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch Conservation Salish Sea PNW Pacific Ocean North West Tourism Ecotourism Pinniped Sea lion Steller

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch Conservation Salish Sea PNW Pacific Ocean North West Tourism Ecotourism Pinniped Pacific Harbour Seal

The Pacific harbour seals were nestled amongst the rocks off of Saturnina Island. Saturnina is one of the Flat Top Islands off Gabriola’s southeast coast. This island was originally called Eagle Island, and given how many eagles we often see in the area it’s easy to see why. Saturnina island was purchased last year by the BC Parks Foundation and is now the Saturnina Island Nature Reserve. This island will now be protected from future developments, so our little seals can enjoy the shores, along with the vultures, eagles, Great blue heron, and a host of other wildlife that use the island.

After leaving Saturnina we headed into the gulf islands through Gabriola Pass. We stopped along the shore of Decourcy island where a large bald eagle nest sits high above a small house. We’ve been stopping at this nest for several years now, and every year the nest appears to get slightly larger. Along the shoreline, we had an interesting sight as well, some deer! Deer are a common sight on Vancouver island and many of the gulf islands. We see them wandering the shores, often along Breakwater Island in the Flat Tops Islands, closer to Saturnina island where we saw the Pacific harbour seals, but this time they were wandering the moss-covered rocks of Decourcy.

Our final stop on the tour was the bluffs along Gabriola Island. Throughout the summer we stop here frequently to see the nesting cormorants. Cormorants are long-necked marine birds, and with 3 different species - Brandt’s, pelagic, and double-crested - we see many of them on our tours. The pelagic and double-crested cormorants are the ones who nest on these steep cliff sides along Gabriola island, returning year after year to rebuild their nests from the previous years, these birds lay small clutches of eggs and spend 2 months incubating their eggs and raising their young. Cormorant chicks hatch after about 28 days of incubation and are only in the nest for about another month before they fledge and find their own way in life. Both parents help raise their young, bringing food from the seafloor to feed them. As marine birds, the cormorants spend a lot of time diving and even use their wings as flippers to propel themselves through the water to catch fish and crustaceans to feed on, as well as kelp and seagrass to help build and fortify their nests.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch Conservation Salish Sea PNW Pacific Ocean North West Tourism Ecotourism cormorant Gabriola Island

All photos from this tour were taken by Marine Naturalist Keagan Sjolie.

Interested in your own adventure on the Salish Sea?

Our tours run daily, departing from the Nanaimo harbour at 10:30 and 3:30. These tours last 3-4 hours on average, but can run up to 5 hours if we have to travel far to see our whales.
We have 2 boats to choose from, but both boats offer the same experience of seeing whales and marine wildlife in their natural habitat.

Open Zodiacs Keta and Cascadia

Semi-Cover Kula

Seats 12 passengers

Marine naturalist to answer any questions you may have and tell you about the wildlife you are seeing
Bathroom on board
Anti-exposure suits which help keep you warm and dry - They are your PFD!

Seats 12 passengers
Marine naturalist to answer any questions you may have and tell you about the wildlife you are seeing
Bathroom on board
viewing platform at the back of the boat

There are 3 ways to book your Salish Sea experience:
Call us at 250-667-5177
Visit our waterfront office at #5 - 90 Front Street Nanaimo
or book directly through our website

May 10th - Orca near Vancouver

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