May 30th - Double species day all day!

Today’s morning and afternoon tour got to experience the same fantastic whales in almost the same places. We often have double species days, especially as we get later into the season, but it’s not so often we have both species right near home, in the same spot for the morning and the afternoon.

Our morning tour left the dock at 10:30 sharp, finding our first whales shortly after near Dodd Narrows. Our first whales of the day were 2 pods of orca, the T036’s and the T137’s, totalling 9 whales between the 2 groups.
This mini T-party was travelling and circling, stopping to socialize with each other before getting back on the move. Small T-parties like this seem to be getting more and more common, with families travelling together for days to weeks at a time.
These 2 families are a frequent sight in our neck of the Salish Sea and we’ve become very familiar with them over the years.

T036’s
T036 - Flapjack (>52 year old female)
T036B - Tattertip (24 year old female)
T036B1 - Bhotia (13 year old female)
T036B2 - Greenfelder (9 year old female)
T036B3 - Chip (4 year old male)

T137’s
T137 - Loon (~38 year old female)
T137A - Jack (20 year old male)
T137B - Tempest (16 year old female)
T137D - Wright (10 year old female)

We track our orcas and their maternal lineage by the numbers and letters assigned to them. Flapjack has 2 daughters that share a number, Tattertip - T036B - is her second born and her first born is Leland - T036A. They both bare their mom’s number T36, and this allows us to keep track of at least some of their lineage.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the 70’s that we began cataloging our whales, and some of our older females and males had already left their mom’s side, or were even temporarily away from mom, resulting in mismatched numbers.
At first glance, these appear to be 2 separate families as Loon and Flapjack don’t share a number. However, it’s become apparent that Loon is likely Flapjack’s actual first daughter. We aren’t sure exactly how researchers have come to this conclusion, but it’s likely that Loon was first spotted solo, on an ambitious teenage-rebellion fuelled solo adventure, resulting in the unique number, and returned to Flapjack’s side later.

This means that this T-party was a small family reunion!

Pod ID photos taken from *Photo Identification Catalogue, Population Status, and Distribution of Bigg’s Killer Whales known from Coastal Waters of British Columbia, Canada* by Towers et al.

In the morning these whales were meandering around Dodd Narrows, and during the afternoon tour we found this same group hadn’t travelled far. We picked them up just off the east side of Newcastle Island, still travelling slowly and socializing with their family.
Orca form life-long bonds with their family members, so while female orca disperse from their mom’s side once they’ve had their own calves and the pod has gotten too big, it’s not uncommon for them to hook up with their mom later on and spend time with their families.

T137A Jack and his sisters T137D Wright (left) and T137B Tempest (right). 3:30PM tour.

Big brother T137A Jack and little sister T137D Wright. 3:30PM tour.

After spending time with our orca on both tours, we headed out to see if we could find some seals or sea lions and were surprised when we found a mother humpback and her calf! Big Momma and her new baby were travelling off the coast of Gabriola Island, slowly heading north.
Big Momma is a very well-known whale in our area because she was the first documented humpback to return to the Salish Sea after nearly a century.
Humpbacks were driven out of the Salish Sea in the early 1900’s due to pressure from the growing whaling industry. It wasn’t until 1997 that a humpback was spotted in the San Juan Islands. At this time there were Eno catalogues of our humpbacks, so we didn’t know who this whale was, but it was a surprising encounter. That same whale returned the next year and the next. Eventually, in the early 2000s, they returned with a calf. That same whale is non-other than Big Momma, who is back again with her 7th known calf. Every year since her first sighting the humpback population in the Salish Sea has increased. Big Momma is often one of the first humpbacks to return every year, stopping first in the San Juan Islands and then slowly making her way north through the Salish Sea to Campbell River. She will spend a few months in the northern waters, feeding on small fish and krill and teaching her new calf how to do the same, before beginning the fall migration home. She’ll once again travel passed Nanaimo, giving us more opportunities to see her and her young one, before they eventually head out to Hawaii, where Big Momma is known to over-winter.

In the morning they were off the south end of Gabriola, and by the time we found them in the afternoon they had made their way up to Snake Island just outside the harbour.

Big Mama (BCY0324) and her new baby boy. 3:30PM tour.

After our time with the whales, we stopped for seals and sea lions on both tours. Seals and sea lions are collectively called pinnipeds, which translates to “feather-foot” or “fin-footed”, referring to their flippers. On the seals these flippers are covered in fur, helping to keep them warm and on the sea lions, they are naked! Sea lions will use their naked flippers to help regulate their body temperature by dipping those fins in the cold water or lifting them up to the sun to help warm them up.

Enjoy the tours photos taken by Marine Naturalist Keagan Sjolie.

Jilann LechnerMay 31, 2022Comment