As we left the harbour for our afternoon tour we knew Neowise and Strike were near Nanaimo but we had a report of a pod of orca near Nanoose. We decided to check and see if the orca were actually there, with the plan to check in on our humpbacks on the way back. As we approached the Nanoose Bay Area we could see the blows of our whales. The pod was heading south towards us, so we moved off their path and stopped to watch what they would get up to. It was easy to ID this group as they were traveling with a distinct male we spend a lot of time with, T049A2 Jude. His tall dorsal with the notch at the tip, covered in new scars, stood out amongst the 3 smaller fins in the group. He was still traveling with the T124A2s, Elkugu, Agafia, and Litton.
This odd-pod had travelled north from Dodd Narrows a few days prior to Nanoose and apparently was just doing loops between Nanoose and Nanaimo for a while. They were slowly traveling, surfacing 4-5 times to catch their breath before a deeper 3-5 min dive.

It’s interesting to see how any of the T124 clan have been around lately. We had Kittiwake with her 3 kids, and brand new grandbaby around a lot within the last month. Kittiwake’s first born, T124A1 Bonapartes, who typically travels alone, had returned for a while to hang out with mom and meet their new sibling and newest niece/nephew. Kittiwake’s second-born, Elkugu, was here today wither her kids. Back in May Kittiwake’s brother Cooper T124C, and sister Field T124D and her family, were around. While these whales are all familiar fins to us and we see them a few times a summer, it’s cool to have seen all living members of a matrilineal within 2 months of each other.

We watched these guys as they traveled south towards Nanaimo for a while, but decided to leave a bit early to check out our humpbacks, with the hope that the orca might give us a second pass if they made it to Nanaimo.

We managed to re-acquire Strike and got to hang out while he dove and circled around the vessel. We believe Neowise was still here as well, hanging out just a little ways away as we saw blows occasionally behind us when we knew Strike had gone down in front of us.

After a bit with Strike Elkugu, her family, and Jude caught up to us. They paid no attention to the 2 humpbacks that were circling nearby and instead continued on their southeast course. By this time Elkugu, Agafia and Litton had started to turn and head towards the Sunshine Coast, lazily traveling in the early evening sun, while Jude swam closer to the islands, heading towards Entrance Island.

Once we left our whales for the evening we stopped by Entrance Island to see the last of this season’s Steller sea lions before they head north for the breeding season. Then we cruised in to take a look at some of the cormorant nests along Gabriola Island.

Here are some of the photos from the tour taken by marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker.

June 25th 3:30 PM - T124A2's and Jude, Strike the Humpback

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