We caught up with the T100’s and T101’s close to home yesterday. We had a report they were coming through False Narrows! From time to time we hear about them being seen near False Narrows and we’ve watched them enter, but normally they turn around. This was the first time we watched them make their way through! It’s not an easy waterway to navigate, because in addition to the narrows being just 0.9 – 1.5 meters deep, there is also a long narrow drying ledge through the center of the narrows. In fact, False Narrows is too shallow for us to safely take our vessels through. When the orcas made their way through it was slack tide, so no current to swim with or against. The tide had not yet reached its lowest for that cycle, which was 1.6 meters, but at the time, the tide was still less than 2 meters, meaning the orca were traversing the narrows in water less than 3.5 meters deep! What is even more interesting is that these pods have 3 full-grown males between 20 and 40 years old, and when these males are fully grown, they can reach heights of up to 2.3 meters tall, plus their large dorsal fins, which add an extra 1.8 meters to their height! Unsurprisingly, we watched them wiggle their way through, unable to submerge their large dorsal fins, which we saw flopping around as they tried to get through the shallowest parts! It was quite the scene, but their mothers, Hutchins (the T100 matriarch who is about 43 years old) and Reef (the T101 matriarch who is over 53 years old) safely navigated their big boys through the narrows. Once they were through, they headed north through Northumberland channel traveling close together, and even came close to check us out!

Soon our hour with them was over, and so we continued along the shore of North Nanaimo to look for more whales. While we passed by Snake Island, we took the opportunity to look for seals and then stopped by Entrance Island to check out the sea lions that have chosen to not migrate north to their breeding grounds.

Although transient orcas get stranded on the beach from time to time, it’s a rare occurrence with years of no strandings in between. The most recent occurrence we know about happened on Prince of Wales Island in the Alaskan Panhandle near BC last summer on July 29th when T146D Leah, born in 2008, found herself stranded on a rocky beach for at least 8 hours. She was injured and vocalized to her nearby pod, while rescuers pumped seawater on her to keep her wet and stave off the birds.

Perhaps one of the most famous stranding events involved T123 Sidney (matriarch born around 1985) and her eldest son Stanley (born in 2000) while they were hunting for seals near Prince Rupert in 2011. Unbeknownst to onlookers, Sidney was pregnant at the time she and her son were found on the sandbar. Females can weigh up to 6 tons, which is a lot of pressure on their organs when they become stranded on dry land. When Sidney had her calf the following year, it was a surprise that her calf survived the traumatic ordeal. In fact, that is how her daughter earned her namesake: Lucky!

Fun fact, the T123’s have been seen often traveling with the T100’s, who came through False Narrows today!

Enjoy the photos from the day of wildlife taken by marine naturalist Vanessa below.