September 22, 2023 - T-party in Nanoose Bay with a side of Humpbacks

It was a beautiful day as we had all three of our vessels depart the Nanaimo Harbour on the afternoon of September 22nd. We ended up finding a whole bunch of whales during this tour, with both Orca and Humpbacks being seen!

These sightings started out when one of the vessels came across of pair of humpback whales travelling together not ten minutes outside of the Nanaimo Harbour. These two were quickly identified as Vanta (BCX1730) and Bullet (BCX1658). They were basically glued to each other during this encounter which was interesting given that they were also travelling together yesterday when we saw them in a similar area. It’s not known exactly what causes these associations in humpback whales, but it’s becoming more and more common to see them in pairs or more! Today these two had one small burst of energy, doing a big cartwheel before continuing along their travels.

The next sighting was of another humpback whale; Snoopy (BCY0770). Although Snoopy was travelling by himself, there were several others in the distance that were visible by their blows. We never got a close enough look at these other whales to determine who it was since we got word of a different species of whale not too far away, it was Orca so we headed that way.

Along the way to the orca one of the boats came across one more humpback whale: this time it was Kraken (BCZ0180)! Kraken didn’t seem to mind our presence there and even took the time to come a bit closer to check us out quickly before moving on. We also moved on, heading towards the other report.

This report turned out to be from a T-party which is the name when multiple groups of Transient/Biggs orca are seen travelling together or socializing. The first one we came across is a bit of a weirdo whale who we have started dubbing the “Creepy Uncle” of these events as he seems to like being close by but is never close enough to say he is actually a part of the social activity. It was Noah (T049A1)!

T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)

A little bit later we ended up finding the rest of the party which consisted of the following whales:

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 (2020)

T049A Nan ♀ (1986)
T049A3 Nat ♂ (2011)
T049A4 Neptune ♂ (2014)
T049A5 Nebula ♀ (2014)
T049A6 (2002)

T059 ♀ (<1970)
T059A2 (2009)
T059A4 (2017)

While we didn’t get photos confirming all of the T049As were present, we did confirm Nat, who hasn’t been recorded travelling away from his pod yet. By the end of our time with these orca, Noah had officially joined up with the rest of the party! These whales seemed to be in more of a travelling and foraging mode instead of socializing since they were very spread out and moving quite quickly! It was amazing getting to see these 13 whales travelling together, even if it was spread out.

As we returned to the dock we counted ourselves lucky to have seen so many whales, in addition to all the other wildlife out there! The Naturalists onboard, Cheyenne Brewster, Des Poier, and Vanessa Vereschahen, captured some great photos from the trip which can all be viewed below!

Vanta preparing to dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bullet liftin their tail to dive. Photo by Des Poier.

Vanta lifting their tail to dive. Photo by Des Poier.

Vanta showing off their tai; in a lovely flick! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bullet creating a fluke waterfall! Photo by Des Poier.

Bullet’s tail disappearing below the surface on a dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bullet diving. Photo by Des Poier.

Vanta flicking their tail. Photo by Des Poier.

You can see some deep white scars on the leading edge of their tail fluke. Photo by Des Poier.

There are lots of little white scars on Bullets Flukes as well. Photo by Des Poier.

Snoopy wasn’t very cooperative, but you can see his defining feature, mainly the big notch missing from the right side of his tail. Photo by Des Poier.

Krakens dorsal fin. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Look at how beautiful the underside of Krakens tail is! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C3 Lucy surfacing. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T059A4 diving. This young whale is sporting some new cuts/scars. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C1 Rocky travelling with his sister, T002C3 Lucy. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C Tasu surfacing with two others. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C Tasu, T059, and T002C4 Lucy all travelling together. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C1 Rocky travelling with his Mom T002C Tasu and youngest sibling, T002C5. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C1 Rocky surfacing with a younger whale in front. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T059A4 is getting very beat up! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T059 Patrolling the shoreline. Photo by Des Poier.

T059A4 surfacing near the rocks. Photo by Des Poier.

T059A2 surfacing with their younger sibling behind. Photo by Des Poier.

In this photo, you can see the white scar/birthmark on T059A2 which makes them easy to ID from this side! Photo by Des Poier.

Some curious-looking cormorants on the white islets. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.