On June 16th we found ourselves catching up with our new never-ending T-party near Crofton Pulp mill in the morning. By the afternoon the group had made it all the way to Saanich Inlet! That’s a long way to travel in just a few short hours. The T086A’s, T100’s, and T124A4 and her new calf were all hanging out, traveling, hunting and even doing some porpoising for us.

While the group traveled together for the most part, often onto of one another, at one point Hutchins and her daughters Tharaya and Estrella turned around and began proposing away from the main party. Porpoising is when orca pick up speed and travel very fast, lifting their whole bodies out of the water as they travel. The 3 ladies disappeared behind us, seemingly chasing something. Eventually, they turned back and rejoined the party, leaving all of us scratching our heads wondering what caused the bizarre change in behaviour.

Edier, the matriarch of the T086A’s, seems to have adopted T124A4 Sabio, and her new calf.
The T124A’s welcomed 2 new members to the pod in late 2021. Both T124A Kittiwake and her daughter T124A4 Sabio gave birth to healthy babies. Having 2 calves in the family certainly makes for a lot of excitement, but it’s also a lot to deal with. Often a matriarch like Kittiwake would help her daughter raise their first calf, but having to take care of her own calf at the same time I’m sure made things difficult.

Kittiwake and Sabio’s siblings left the T086A’s a few weeks ago, but Sabio and her new calf have stuck around. Eider’s kids are no longer troublesome toddlers, so she has the time to help Sabio raise her new calf. This is all speculation, of course, we aren’t exactly sure why Sabio has stuck around with the T086A’s after the rest of her family has gone off, but it would make sense if Eider was giving her some help with the young one while Kittiwake has her own flippers full with their own calf.

Today they were traveling with another pod, the T100’s, lead by matriarch Hutchins who travels with her son Laurel and daughters Tharaya and Estrella.

After hanging out with our whales all the way down in Saanich Inlet we came back to see the Steller sea lions and Pacific harbour seals on Entrance Island before returning to our harbour.

Enjoy some of the photos from today’s tour taken by Marine Naturalists Rebeka Pirker and Janine Van Der Linden.