Another day on the water found us travelling fairly far south to Mayne island in the Strait of Georgia where we found some of our seasonal favourites, the T124 sister!
We’re quite familiar with Elkugu and Sabio and their children at this point. It seems we are encountering them every other day now! We’ve all become experts in picking out Sabios’ tiny notches and Elkugus’ perfectly triangular dorsal fin on the waves, trailed by their posy of energetic kids.

Today the family was travelling fast, fluking and spy-hopping through the waters as they made their way slowly north. one of the perks of seeing a pod so frequently is getting to know them as individuals and learning their personalities. It’s even more special when there is such a young whale in the group. Sabios daughter is now over a year old and we’ve watched as she’s starting to swim further from mom as she plays with her cousins, spending less time glued to Sabio’s tail. Still, at this age, little T124A4A is learning a lot from her mom and won’t stray too far, but it’s exciting watching her become comfortable as her own whale and learning to do things without her mom’s help.

Orca are incredibly family-oriented animals, so regardless of how old an orca is, when presented with an opportunity to snuggle up to mom, they almost always take it. Even full-grown males can often be seen rubbing up against mom and travelling just as close as the calves do.

After leaving the orca we decided to travel up through the beautiful gulf islands on our way home and that is where we found Strike, a lone female humpback, travelling near Ruxton pass. Strike was confirmed as a female when she returned to the Salish Sea last year with a calf. This is one of the easiest ways to determine a whale’s sex - just wait to see if they have a kid! Though this isn’t a foolproof method, as a female whale may be infertile or unable to carry a pregnancy to term. They may also take their calves to a different feeding sight, away from people and therefore they go undocumented. The only other surefire way to confirm a humpback’s gender is to get lucky with your camera and take a photo of their semi-spherical lobe, or lack of if they are a male. This small lobe is located on the ventral side (belly side) of a humpback peduncle. A peduncle is a term for the area where the tail joins the body of the whale. Strike was doing her normal routine of travelling in a circle, likely foraging on small fish that hang out in near the passes in the islands.

In the afternoon we rejoined the T124 sisters as they continued their trip north along the eastern side of the gulf islands. They were still up to their social antics, spy-hopping and even porpoising as they would pick up speed and fast-travel for short bursts.

Below are the photos from the tour taken by marine naturalists Carmen Murphy and Aly Kohlman.