June 23rd 3:30 PM - Nike + Hydra + T124A2's + T049A2

During the 3:30 tour on the 23rd we were able to relocate Nike and Hydra, the two humpbacks we were with during our morning tour.
They had travelled quite the distance, making it from Active Pass to the north of Thetis Island in only a few hours. They were still doing their long deep dives, searching for small fish and krill to fatten up on after making their grand migration from their overwintering grounds.

After a bit of time with our humpbacks, we got word of a pod of orca moving through False Narrows between Mudge Island and Gabriola Island. We arrived to find the T124A2s and T049A2 splashing their way through the narrow channel. The T124A2s are a small family of 3 whales, Elkugu the matriarch travels with her son Agafia and daughter Litton. Traveling with them is T049A2, Jude, a 15 year old male orca who has been apart from his own family pod for some time. Last year Jude started spending more and more time away from his family. At first traveling with his brother, Noah, before getting more bold and heading off solo, hooking up with other relatives like his Aunt, or unrelated pods. Eventually, Jude may decide to return to his mom’s side, or he may choose to remain a lone whale and pod-hope. Only time will tell with this one.

We watched this pod splashing, breaching, spy hopping, tail slapping, and back-stroking their way through the narrows and all the way to Protection island before we left them heading north.

Below are photos from the tour taken by marine naturalist Vanessa

Hydra

Hydra

Hydra

Elkugu

Noses out!

Siblings Agafia and Litton

Matriarch T124A2 Elkugu

Jude T049A2

Tiny orca tail!

Elkugu, T124A2, sporting plenty of scaring in her saddle and a few good scratches in her dorsal fin.

Jude

Jude has his own unique scars in his saddle and dorsal. Compared to his catalog photo which was taken in 2019, his dorsal looks very different. He began to sprout early last year and now his dorsal is so large it’s begun to lean a bit to the side. He also has many new scars that are visible in his saddle patch showing that he’s probably been fighting with seals or sea lions.