October 3, 2023 - The T018s travelling with the T049As, and a handful of humpbacks

It’s always a good day when our tour starts out with reports of both humpbacks and orca not far from Nanaimo. We had two boats off the dock today, and they both started the search to figure out which we would find. At nearly the same time, both boats came across whales! The open boat spotted some humpbacks in the distance and the semi-covered vessel found the orca first.

After both watched their whales for a bit, they switched so both got double species today! Lets start with the orca since they were cooperating a bit more while we watched them. Sometimes when we have sleepy whales, like our humpbacks were today, they won’t show off their tails, which is what we use to ID them. A sleepy or travelling orca on the other hand will always have it’s distinguishing feature visible: it’s dorsal fin! As the name suggests the Dorsal fin is on the Dorsal (top) part of the orca, meaning whenever they come to breathe it comes out of the water so we can get photos of it.

Upon viewing the orca, we quickly recognized a couple of common pods to our area travelling together: the T018s and the T049As (-A1 and A2). That means the following 9 whales were travelling together:

T018 Esperanza ♀ (≤1955)
T019 Nootka ♀ (≤1965)
T019B Galiano ♂ (1995)
T019C Spouter ♂ (2001)

T049A Nan ♀ (1986)
T049A3 Nat ♂ (2011)
T049A4 Neptune ♂ (2014)
T049A5 Nebula ♀ (2017)
T049A6 (2022)

For nearly the entire time we watched the orca, between the two boats, these 9 whales were very tightly packed together, but at the very end, they split apart, likely because of a large congregation of birds feeding nearby. Although these orca are mammal eaters, and not after fish, this bait ball getting the birds excited may have been drawing in seals and sea lions which do want to feed on them. The rest of the time these whales were relatively slow-moving and grouped together, a good indication that they might have been lazily travelling, or having a group power nap while we watched them. No matter the reason, it’s always great to watch orca when they are spending lots of time at the surface!

The humpbacks today, although we saw a lot of them, weren’t as easy to ID. A few of the groups that we saw were very sleepy, and for them, this meant not lifting their main identifying feature, their tail, out of the water. While dorsal fins on humpback whales can also be used in some cases to ID the whales, it’s much more difficult and less reliable since there isn’t a huge amount of variation in the fins. In total our two boats ended up seeing a total of 7 different humpback whales, but we only were able to ID the following whales from their low flukes and dorsal fins:

Slits (BCY0946)
Mammoth (BCX1710)
Hydra (BCY1000)
Kraken (BCZ0180)

Slits, Hydra, and an unknown were travelling together in a group of three, We had Mammoth was travelling with another unknown friend, and Kraken was also travelling with an unknown. This last unknown with Kraken is a little special since we have a partial fluke for this whale, but haven’t been able to match it against any of the local catalogues yet! If we do end up IDing this whale we will be sure to update it here.

Below are some of the best photos from the day of both the orca and humpbacks, taken by the naturalists onboard, Des Poier and Vanessa Vereschahen. Enjoy!

T049A3 Nat, T049A4 Neptune, T049A5 Nebula, T019B Galiano, and T049A Nan travelling together in front of the BC ferry. Photo by Des Poier.

T019C Spouter. Photo by Des Poier.

T049A5 Nebula, T019 Nootka, and T019B Galiano. Photo by Des Poier.

T049A5 Nebula and T019B Galiano. Photo by Des Poier.

T019B Galiano. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A6 with his face out of the water next to T019B Galiano and T049A Nan. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A3 Nat. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A5 Nebula surfacing next to mom, T049A Nan. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A5 Nebula has a very pointed dorsal fin. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T019C Spouter. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T019B Galiano with another behind him. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A3 Nat, T049A5 Nebula, T018 Esperanza, and T049A Nan. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A3 Nat. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A4 Neptune, T049A3 Nat, T049A5 Nebula, and T049A Nan. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T049A6 surfacing next to mom T049A Nan and T018 Esperanza. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T019B Galiano. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T019C Spouter and T049A5 Nebula. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The orca in the group of birds that woke them up! Photo by Des Poier.

Harbour Seals hauled out on stinky rock. Photo by Des Poier.

A big yawn from a Steller Sea Lion. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

You can see this guy got a brand! This is to track populations. Photo by Des Poier.

A big male Steller Sea Lion. Photo by Des Poier.

Turnstones on the shoreline. Photo by Des Poier.

The mystery whale travelling with Kraken. Photo by Des Poier.

Kraken. Photo by Des Poier.

Kraken. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Mystery Whale Diving. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The underside of the mystery whales fluke. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Going for a dive! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Kraken Diving. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Mammoth has scars from a boat propeller. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Someone’s rostrum peeking out of the water! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A California Sea Lion on Harmac log booms. Photo by Des Poier.