May 20th 3:30 PM - T124A's & T086A's through Dodd Narrows

As our afternoon tour was getting ready to head out we heard of a pod of whales near Gabriola Island, so one of our boats that wasn’t heading out with guests left to find them and keep an eye on them until our tour could get out and join them.
The whales were found along Gabriola north end heading towards Dodd narrows. We originally IDed this group as the T049A’s without the boys, and the T086A’s. Both of these pods are familiar to us and have been in the area recently, and the appearance of a very young whale had us confident in our IDing.

After closer inspection, we realized we actually had the T124A’s, not the T049A’s. Looking at these 2 images it’s easy to see why the initial ID was made.
Nan, T049A, (top) has several little notches near the base of her dorsal, and currently is traveling with her children Nat, Neptune, Nebula, and a baby born early this year.
Sabio, T124A4, (bottom) has very similar notches on her dorsal fin. Her ID photo in this catalogue is a little outdated, as she has grown and her fin has straightened out a bit since the ID photo was taken. At 12 years old she’s going through puberty and gave birth to her first calf late last year. Along with her mom, Kittiwake, who gave birth around the same time. Sabio currently travels with her mom Kittiwake, 2 siblings Kasuun and T124A7, and her own calf T124A4A.

That means that both of these pods have the same number of whales, made up of whales that are about the same age and size. And with similar notches in their fins, it’s an easy mistake to make. This is why we always double and triple-check out IDing. We check on the water, again when we get back to the office, and usually once more as we are writing these blogs.

We traveled with this pod as they made their way towards Dodd Narrows before they turned around and headed back for Protection Island. In total, we had 9 whales here.

T124A - Kittiwake
T124A4 - Sabio
T124A4A
T124A6 - Kasuun
T124A7

T086A - Eider
T086A1 - Nahanni
T086A3 - Tyndall
T086A4 - Akia

You can clearly see a lot of the scaring that we look for in the saddle patches in Kittiwakes saddle. Behind her is Tyndall, who is very easy to ID by the large notch near the tip of her fin.

We are currently offering daily public tours at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm on either our open zodiac or semi-covered vessel.

You can book your tour by calling 250-667-5177, visiting our waterfront office at #5 Front Street Nanaimo, or continuing through our website

All photos on today’s tour were taken by marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker