August 28th - T-party and Humpbacks Galore!

We were lucky the morning of August 28th when we left the harbour as we had reports of both humpbacks and orca right outside Nanaimo! We had our boats split, two of them searching for the orca reported off of neck point park and the third went to search for the humpbacks.

The humpbacks were found first, it was two of them, KEY0034 Sherwina and KEY0020 Chinook travelling together just north of five fingers island near Nanaimo. This area has been a hotspot for your humpbacks the last few weeks with many different individuals being seen feeding in the area. These two are a pairing we hadn’t seen yet this year so we enjoyed watching them travel together.

The orca was found next and thanks to Laurel we quickly IDed them as the T100s! This pod consists of T100 Hutchins, T100C Laurel (a large male), T100E Tharaya and T100F Estrella. These 4 Orca were travelling south-east and we ended up leaving them on the east side of Gabriola Island, continuing to travel south in the strait of Georgia.

It wasn't long after finding the first two groups of whales that we got word of a big T-party that was moving south from the Nanoose Bay Area! We went over to see if we could find these animals, and they made it easy for us. There were 18 whales total and they were very happy to be travelling together. they were breaching, doing tail slaps, and other surface activity while travelling very close to shore. It was quite a sight to see! The orca present were as follows:

T002C Tasu
T002C1 Rocky
T002C3 Lucy
T002C5

T037A Volker
T037A2 Inky
T037A3 Spinnaker
T037A4 Crinkle
T037A5

T124A2 Elkugu
T124A2A Agafia
T124A2B Litton

T124A4 Sabio
T124A4A

T137 Loon
T137A Jack
T137B Tempest
T137D Wright

After watching the T-party for a while we left them behind and returned to the harbour.

When we left again for the afternoon the orca were even closer! We found the T-party now travelling together on the east side of protection island, with the T137s moving into Departure Bay. One boat followed them into the bay and the other two stayed with the larger group on the outside. Inside the bay Jack left the rest of his family to do his own thing and the group did a very close pass by of the BC ferry terminal. Sometimes areas like this can house pinnipeds like Harbour Seals so they were likely cruising for a snack, and they found one! They started doing hunting behaviour, quick surfaces in a small area and we even got to see a spy hop! It was lovely to see, and soon after the family finished their snack and made their way out of the bay, the rest of the t-party had made its way along Gabriola Island, heading towards Orlebar point on Gabriola Island, we had one final look at them before we continued to search the Salish Sea for other wildlife.

There were plenty of seals, sea lions, and birds along the way that we got to view before finally returning to the harbour for the day.

Please enjoy the photos from the trips taken by Marine Naturalists Vanessa Vereschahen, Carmen Murphy, and Janine Van Der Linden!