The clouds rolled in this morning, giving us a bit of a break from the heat we’ve had over the last week.
As our guests were suiting up to head out we got a second-hand report from the BC ferries that there were Orca seen near Entrance Island. Our fleet pushed off, spreading out to find the whales. Kula headed out along the BC ferry line towards the sunshine coast, while Cascadia and Keta (our open zodiac style vessels) patrolled the shores of Gabriola and the gulf islands in case the whales had gone south or through the islands.

With no sign of the whales, our open vessels continued south while Kula branched north in the Strait searching for yesterday’s Humpbacks. There were a few sea lions on the Halibut Bank buoy but no sign of the 4 humpbacks that had been there the day before. Then we got the call, the morning’s orcas had moved north towards Nanoose. All 3 boats turned to head for the whales, finding them as they travelled north towards the Ballenas Islands.

It took our senior naturalists only a few photos to ID these whales as the T124 sisters! Sabio has 2 very small notches near the base of her dorsal, while Litton has a notch about halfway up her little dorsal fin. After spending so much time with this group over the last month we’ve gotten very familiar with this little family and rarely even need photos to tell who they are.
While Sabio and Elkugu seemed to travel at a steady speed, the kids seemed to be in a very social mood. Everyone was barrel rolling around, tail slapping and tail lobbing, and Agafia even showed off his “sea snake” during a barrel roll and one of our naturalists was quick with the camera. Can you spot it in the photos below?

After spending time with the family we turned to head back to Nanaimo. On the way home Cascadia spotted a second pod, likely the ones seen from the ferry, travelling in the same direction as the Sisters. This was the T90’s, slowly cruising north past Mistaken Island. The matriarch, Eagle, travels with her son Piglet, and daughters Tigger and Kanga. Piglet is getting quite big, at 16 years old his dorsal is getting fairly tall but still has 5-6 years of growth before he’ll be full-sized. As big as he is, Piglet has managed to keep his dorsal fin notch-free! Notches are often what naturalists use on the water to ID the whales, as they are distinct and easy to see in photos, however, not having a notch is pretty unique in itself!

After leaving our whales we made our way back to the harbour for the day as an afternoon storm rolled in. Along the way Kula found a very large chunk of styrofoam floating off the East side of Protection and Newcastle Islands. They pulled a u-turn and fished the styrofoam out to properly dispose of it on shore.

Below are some of the best photos from our Orca-filled day by Marine Naturalists Beka Pirker, Cheyenne Brewster, and Carmen Murphy.

Kanga (T090D, left) and big brother Piglet (T090B, right). Photo by Beka Pirker.

Kanga (T090D, left) and momma Eagle (T090, right). Photo by Beka Pirker.

Family photo! Left to right: Tigger (T090C), Piglet (T090B), Kanga (T09D), and Eagle (T090). Photo by Beka Pirker.

Tigger (T090C) and big brother Piglet (T090B). Photo by Beka Pirker.

Splish splashing from the T124A2/A4’s. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Can you spot the ‘sea snake’ in this photo? Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Litton (T124A2B, left) close to momma Elkugu (T124A2, right). Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.

Elkugu (T124A2, left) with a youngster close by. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.

The photos above are a great example of distortion. This is the same whale, taken only a few second apart, and yet her dorsal fin looks totally different shape-wise from picture to picture! Depending on your camera setup and the angle a whale surfaces, you may have something like this happen while trying to ID!

August 10th - Two Groups of Orca!

© Vancouver Island Whale Watch 2018-2024. All Rights Reserved.