June 12th 3:30 PM - Afternoon trip with the T041's near Crofton

This afternoon we reacquired the T041s who hadn’t moved too much since we saw them in the morning, Lawrie and her daughter Jemison were traveling around with the kids Tree and T041A3. These guys were near Crofton, off Willy island as they slowly made their way north.

While the T041’s typically hang out on the west side of Vancouver Island they aren’t the only unexpected pod that has shown up in our waters this year.
We’ve had a number of encounters this season with the Alaskan boys Flotsam and Jetsam - who typically hang out around the north end of the island and in Alaska. Their mom, and bother Hacksaw, we're also seen in our waters. Those 2 have very few sightings in their history, likely spending most of their time in the north and even away from the islands where they don’t get seen often. The infamous Chainsaw and his mom Whidbey II have spent a bit of time near us when they are typically found closer to Victoria or up in Alaska. The T086A’s were a pod we had only encountered twice before, once in 2018 and again in early 2019, but have been in our region for several weeks now. It’s very cool to see how many newcomers we have and we’re curious to see how many other unique pods will make their way through our Salish Sea this year.

Photos by Marine Naturalist Janine Van Der Linden.