We woke up with the sun shining this morning and were eager to get out on the water! With high hopes and in good spirits, we departed from the Nanaimo Harbour. Some days it takes us a while to spot our whales, as none are tagged, chipped or tracked. We find them every day thanks to our eagle eyed crew, and of course the help of our guests, who often spot the whales before we do! Although searching through our range is never dull with all the beautiful scenery to take in, today we did not have to go far before we spotted a huge black dorsal fin close to the shore just off Neck Point Park, right here in North Nanaimo.

It was none other than the fan-favourite T019B Galiano! He and his brother T019C Spouter have become very popular as they are massive Orca, easy to spot and identify due to their distinct dorsal fins. These boys shot up in popularity because they are a sight to see indeed. Both Galiano and Spouter are around 30 feet in length and have dorsal fins that tower 6 feet tall! Amongst these two brothers, we also noticed smaller dorsal fins as well! To our excitement we realized there were several different transient orca pods here, a T-party is what we stumbled upon! Today’s whales include:

T075B Pebbles ♀ (1995)
T075B2 Fifi / Jasper ♀ (2015)
T075B2A (2023)
T075B3 Rubble (2017)
T075B4 (2021)

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

T077D Alycon ♀ (2009)

Among our impressive brothers was their grandmother T018 Esperanza. She is a favourite herself because she was born before 1955, making her at least 68, and she is respected for her age and wisdom! Her daughter T019 Nootka is mother to both Galiano and Spouter she is at least 58 herself! We also had a very young mother at the party T075B2 Jasper, she is 8 years old. Seeing the T075Bs is a bit bittersweet. We have not seen her newborn calf (2023) with the pod for a few days and it is with heavy hearts that we assume the calf is deceased. The mortality rate for the young orcas is very high, as they have only a 50% chance of survival in the first year. We assume because Jasper was such a young mother with little experience this may have been a contributing factor to the loss of her calf. Orca have many similarities to ourselves, including going through puberty from age 10-15. Having a calf at 8 years old, while uncommon, is not impossible. As you can see by Esperanza and Nootka, the Orca have similar lifespans to us. In fact, J2 Granny (a female from the Southern Resident population) passed away between 102 and 105 years old! As heartbreaking as this outcome was, it is comforting to know Jasper is a young mother so I can almost guarantee we will see her with a calf again in the future!

After spending time with the Orca we were lucky enough to find a couple of Humpback Whales as well! Or maybe I should say, they found us today! After seeing the familiar blows of Humpbacks, we soon discovered Prowler (BCX1660) and a friend who approached our boat, to our surprise. This behaviour is called mugging, and is when the whales take an interest in us and come to investigate. It is at these times we are very happy they are gentle giants! Today Prowler and friend decided to get a closer look at us, coming up right on either side of our open vessel Cascadia, making us into a sandwich if you will! After a close pass to inspect us, the two Humpbacks carried on most likely feeding, as they need to consume between 3000 to 5000 pounds of food per day! Coming in at 50 to 60 feet long and around 80,000 pounds, it takes a lot of Krill to keep up that figure!

We ended our trip with a visit to the Harmac Mill log booms, where we found our California Sea Lions logging some sleep! They are just returning to us from…you guessed it…California! We can not forget about our most abundant mammal here in the Salish Sea (most likely what our T-Party of Orca were patrolling the shore for) our Harbour Seals made an appearance as well! We see the incredible lives of these animals daily and although some of the outcomes are not as we would want, there’s no good, no bad just nature! Enjoy the photos from the day’s trip below.

Photos by Marine Naturalists Cheyenne Brewster, Aly Kohlman, and Vanessa Vereschahen.