Today we travelled very far south, all the way to Active Pass, to find 2 familiar fins playing in the current. Our favourite boys, Jude and Amira, were back. These 2 have been making waves all over the Salish Sea lately and have earned themselves a new nickname - the Butcher Boys.
We followed as the boys travelled all the way through Active Pass, playing in the currents and weaving around ferries.

For those who aren’t familiar with these 2 trouble makers, Jude and Amira are teenage male orcas from 2 different pods. At 15 years old these boys began sprouting around a year and a half ago, which means their dorsal fins have grown rapidly as they approach maturity. At 15 these boys are now capable of breeding with females and taking care of themselves for the most part. Often young males will venture away from their family pods during puberty as they get restless, most however will return to their moms side after they finish exploring life on the wild side.
Jude began his solo adventures early last year when he and his older brother Noah left their moms’ (Nan) side for several weeks. Noah had returned to moms side while Jude hadn’t quite gotten his fill of solo adventuring yet. Amira is just his latest travel companion. Both these boys come from fairly large families that are spotted frequently in the Salish Sea. Jude’s family is the T049A’s. Lead by matriarch Nan, she travels with her sons Noah, Nan, Neptune, daughter Nebula, and newest addition T049A6.
Amira’s mom, Artemis, leads the T065A pod. Artemis travels with her sons Ooxjaa and Indy (previously Elsie), and daughters Ellifrit and Callisto.

Some other interesting notes about these pods.
Both matriarchs were born in 1986. Nan’s oldest Noah was born in 2001, while Ooxjaa was born in 2004. both females had a calf in 2007 (Jude and Amira), another in 2011 (Nat and Ellifrit) and another in 2014 (Neptune and Indy). These moms are definitely in sync!

Whale watching in Active Pass is always beautiful, but slightly nerve wracking. This pass is a highly used ferry route and during our brief time with the whales 4 large ferries and a large barge came through the channel. We often get asked about how large vessels like these impact the whales.
When it comes to humpbacks, being larger and slower moving whales, they seem to have more issues than the orca do. Many of our humpbacks bare the scars from boat propellers. We also don’t know how many humpbacks die each year to boat strikes. When whales die we rarely know the cause, as they sink to the bottom and simply vanish.

Orca are much faster than humpbacks, and much smaller as well. They maneuver quicker in the water and seem to have an easier time avoiding boats. As Jude and Amira played in the current they would travel between the center of the pass to the shores, and they seemed to almost be playing with the large ferries. When the vessels passed Jude and Amira would disappear from where we were watching and reappear right next to or in the wake of the ferries. Like two teenagers playing a game of chicken, or maybe more accurately, like Canadian kids playing hockey in the street yelling ”car!” and clearing the way.
It’s worth mentioning that the ferries knew the whales were present and slowed as much as possible and gave the whales as much room as they could in the narrow space. Jude and Amira were the ones chasing the vessels on this beautiful day!

Photos by Marine Naturalists Rebeka Pirker and Carmen Murphy.

July 13 10:30 AM - Jude and Amira cruise through Active Pass

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