2 boats left the Nanaimo harbour, fanning out as we zig-zagged through the Gulf islands looking for whales on a beautiful sunny morning. As both vessels made their way south, Kula eventually headed out into the Strait through Porlier Pass to see if there were any whales. Kula headed out through Porlier Pass to scan the Strait while the zodiac stayed in the islands. Almost as soon as Kula got into the Strait we got a radio call that there was a pod of Orca travelling northbound between Saltspring and Galiano Islands. The zodiac was closer and got on scene first to find 4 small whales surfacing sporadically. As Kula arrived on scene the whales had disappeared. After an extended dive, they finally resurfaced, in the distance heading for Galiano. By the time we repositioned, the whales had gone under again, only to resurface further ahead. These whales were not going to make it easy to keep an eye on them. After a while, we were able to finally get some good photos of our pod and ID them as the T075B’s. Pebbles was travelling with her son Jasper and 2 other offspring Rubble and T075B4. This pod was very tricky to ID because everyone is very young. All the dorsal fins were smooth and “perfect” in that there were no notches or divots to work with. They also weren’t surfacing very high, so getting good photos of their saddles was difficult as well. Finally we managed to get a photo of the matriarchs saddle that showed some very unique scaring, this ultimately was what we used to ID our pod today.
This little pod eventually picked up speed and beelined northwards.
After spending an hr with our whales we ventured north, stopping to check out seals and sea lions as we headed back to harbour.
Check out the photos below taken by marine naturalists Rebeka Pirker and Keagan Sjolie.

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch orca Transient Biggs Killer Whale Saddle Patch Dorsal Fin — Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Nanaimo Vancouver Island Whale Watch orca Transient Biggs Killer Whale Saddle Patch Dorsal Fin T075B — Photo by Rebeka Pirker

Above you can see some of the scars we used to ID Pebbles. Right along the bottom of her saddle you can see several faded rake marks that look like little fingers reaching into her saddle patch.

Surface tension is incredible. In these photos, you can see Pebbles as she comes to the surface next to the rest of her family. The water seems to stretch over the whale’s face before finally breaking and allowing the orca to reach the surface.

May 20th 10:30 AM - T075B's travelling up Trinchomali Channel

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