Every year we have a general idea of what whales to expect during the season. Orca don’t have a migration pattern, but specific pods certainly seem to have areas of the sea they prefer to hang out. Humpbacks return to the same feeding grounds every year, so the whales we see year after year tend to be the same groupings, though we do get a few new whales every year.
This year has been a little different. We’ve had some of our usual pods around, like the T034’s, T037’s, T037A’s and the T065A’s. However, every week it seems like there are more unfamiliar pods showing up in our waters. It started with the T086A’s a few months back, a pod that usually hangs out up north. The Alaskan boys were next, followed by their mom and brother. Chainsaw and his mom cruised by a few times. We had the infamous T072 Young who was traveling with T037A1 Inyo, whose mom is a frequent visitor, but Inyo hasn’t been seen around our waters for some time.
Today we had another new group show up. The T069’s. Led by matriarch Komox, whose about 48 years old, travels with her three boys, Kye, Kodiak, and Kin. It’s always exciting to see new fins in our region but it has us scratching our heads and asking what has brought them here. Kye, the oldest boy in this pod, has one of the largest fins we’ve ever seen on an orca. At 27 years old he is fully grown and his dorsal is impressively straight given its size. Eventually, his two younger brothers will look pretty similar and Komox will have a trio of large males following her through the Strait.
This pod is typically seen off of Ucluelet and the Port McNeill areas but we’re hoping they will stick around and we get to keep seeing this new pod for a while.

Enjoy the photos of our odd pod taken by marine naturalists Janine Van Der Linden and Vanessa Vereschahen

July 22nd - More unusual whales!

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