October 4, 2023 - Two T-Parties and Fader the Humpback!
We started out the day on October 4th by finding a humpback whale, Fader (BCY0195). Fader was travelling solo today, but they were doing their regular high flukes, meaning we were able to quickly ID them. They are a Y-type humpback whale, meaning that they have between 20-80% of their tail white! You can see from the photo below there is a lot of white colouration on their tail, as well as a few obvious scars. One of the more obvious ones, the swoop on the right side of the tail flukes, is what we are usually looking for to confirm this whale. Since it is a nice clear and bold marking it’s usually easy to spot!
Fader also has some scarring on their dorsal fin, which might be useful for identifying this whale if they decide to not lift up their tail when they dive. Today Fader was in the path of the two other groups of whales that we saw later in the trip, meaning we also got to see Fader twice! During the first encounter, Fader was travelling slowly around Five Fingers Island near Nanaimo. During the second encounter the orca were a lot closer and you could see a difference in Faders behaviour, a lot more frantic surfaces and even a single warning breach from Fader, likely letting those orca know they weren’t to be messed with! It was a very interesting interaction to see.
The first group of orca that were seen during this tour was a little bit of a strange pairing. It was the T101s travelling with one other whale: T037A4 Crinkle! That means the following whale were present:
T037A4 Crinkle ♀ (2015)
T101 Reef ♀ (≤1969)
T101A Rush ♂ (1993)
T101 B Lagoon ♂ (1997)
These whales were on a mission while we were watching them, moving very quickly together, heading south in the Strait of Georgia. We had thought maybe these animals were moving south to meet up with the other group of whales that would later be found, but reports from other boats said that these two groups passed each other without interaction. This is made even stranger by the fact that the other group contained Crinkle’s own family! It is always interesting watching the whales in high-speed travel mode since they tend to bring more of their bodies up out of the water than they would during normal travel speeds. We got amazing views of eye patches and more of their saddle patches than we normally would as these whales boogied down the Strait.
Soon we ran out of time to stay with these animals and decided to head over and see the other, larger group that was found heading north from the east side of Gabriola Island. This larger group was composed of members of 5 different pods! From going through our photos later we determined the following whales were present:
T035 Ruby Roo ♀ (≤1970)
T035A Lester ♀ (1998)
T035A1 Opal (2010)
T035A2 Topaz (2013)
T035A3 Garnet (2018)
T036A Leland ♀ (1990)
T036A1 Tierna ♀ (2005)
T036A1A (2022)
T036A2 Kailas ♀ (2012)
T036A3 Mike II ♂ (2015)
T036A5 (2021)
T037A Volker ♀ (1994)
T037A2 Inky ♂ (2009)
T038A Dana ♀ (2000)
T038A2 (2020)
T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)
This group of 14 orca was really living up to the party part of the T-Party they had formed. This was a very social group, with lots of surface activity. We saw tail slapping, swimming upside down, and lots of different associations between the individuals. When we see multiple groups travelling together like this it’s not always such an active affair, sometimes they just travel or sleep together, so seeing them being so exciting is always a treat! I could tell you all about the different behaviour that we saw, but a picture is worth 1000 words, so I’ll let you check out all the amazing moments captured by onboard naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Des Poier below!
A catalogue-worthy photo of Faders tail. Photo by Des Poier.
Faders dorsal fin as they prepare to dive. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Fader creating a fluke waterfall as they dive. Photo by Des Poier.
The underside of Faders tail. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Fader preparing to dive. Photo by Des Poier.
The beautiful underside of Faders tail flukes. Photo by Des Poier.
T101s and T037A4
T037A4 Crinkle travelling fast with T101 Reef and T101 B Lagoon about to surface. Photo by Des Poier.
T101 Reef and T101B Lagoon surfacing together. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T101B Lagoon. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
The remaining T101 Brothers: T101B Lagoon (left) and T101A Rush (right). Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T101 Reef with her son T101B Lagoon. Photo by Des Poier.
The whole T101 family! T101 Reef between T101B Lagoon and T101A Rush. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T101 Reef surfacing in the water. Check out all those scars in her saddle patch. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T037A4 Crinkle with T101A Rush. Photo by Des Poier.
T101B Lagoon travelling quickly. Photo by Des Poier.
Fader showing off their power with all these orca passing a little too close by for comfort. Photo by Des Poier.
T035s, T036As, T038As, and T049A1
T036A5 surfacing with some new scars. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T036A1 Tierna surfacing with another just breaking the water behind her. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T037A2 Inky is turning out to be such a large male! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Tail slap in front of T049A1 Noah and T037A2 Inky. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T049A1 Noah surfacing closely with T037A2 Inky. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T049A1 Noah. Photo by Des Poier.
T037A2 Inky. Photo by Des Poier.
T035A2 Topaz surfacing in front of T049Aa1 Noah. Photo by Des Poier.
T049A1 Noah. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T037A Volker behind this upside down whale. Photo by Des Poier.
T037A2 Inky travelling with T035A2 Topaz. Photo by Des Poier.
T038A Dana is very easily recognized from this white birthmark. Photo by Des Poier.
A Great Blue Heron fishing near Harmac pulp mill. Photo by Des Poier.
A large male Steller Sea Lion amongst the California Sea Lions. Photo by Des Poier.
A California Sea Lion enjoying his time on the log booms. Photo by Des Poier.
A juvenile gull posed for the camera. Photo by Des Poier.