This morning we left the harbour with a report of a group of Orca close to the Vancouver Harbour so we started to make the crossing. Along the way one of our vessels came across a couple of uncooperative humpbacks who blew twice, dove, and never came back up again. Although it’s not very common, our humpbacks can dive for up to 45 minutes on a single breath. These guys must have been doing longer dives because after waiting for about 10 minutes they didn't surface again so the vessel continued to the orca.

When we got there the orca were boogieing, travelling quickly northwest. It was one of our favourite pods, the T018s! This group had been split up for the last little while with T018 Esperanza travelling with T019C Spouter and T019 Nootka and T019B Galiano travelling together. This behaviour is a bit unusual since there four are usually seen travelling together, although sometimes spread out as much as a mile apart. Even at those distances though they would still be in communication. They likely wouldn't have been able to talk to each other after this separation. It seems that they did eventually find each other again though since today they were all present.

Esperanza is special, as she is one of the oldest whales in the Bigg’s population! She is estimated to have been born on or before 1955, meaning she is at least 67 years old! Her presumed daughter, Nootka is also an older orca, at 57 years old (estimated). Since both these ladies are older they have already gone through menopause and won’t be having any more calves. They still have some fight in them though, even at their older age, since they keep showing up with new scars and notches meaning they are likely still taking on larger prey like the sea lions. The two big boys, Galiano and Spouter are probably helping them with the hunts, or they’re being bad influences on them, making their mom and grandmother go for the larger prey.

It’s also very possible that they have just had more time to gather hunting techniques for these larger prey species and are trying to get the most bang for their buck food-wise by going for the larger prey species. Of course, this is all speculation, but we like to imagine what these animals are doing and thinking while we aren’t around. They are amazing animals and we enjoyed every minute of watching them. Once our hour was up, we left these four behind, heading back across the strait to the Nanaimo harbour.

On the way home, we got to see some cute little harbour seals hauled out on Snake Island. We also stopped at the Gabriola Bluffs to see the cormorants and has a special surprise when a peregrine falcon gave us a fly-by before landing on the cliffs.

Please enjoy all the photos taken by naturalists Janine and Vanessa.

September 5th 10:30 AM - T018s South of Bowen Island

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