Leaving the Harbour on November 1st we were greeted with amazing weather, sunny skies and smooth seas. We started the search for whales in the Strait of Georgia since this has been a common place to find animals this year, and although it’s a huge body of water to search, there are certain “hotspots” that we usually check for whales since they are areas of higher productivity. With this in mind we first headed over to one of these areas that has been a good place for humpbacks, Halibut Bank! Scanning the water for any sign of these animals we ended up crossing the whole Strait without anything showing up, so we made a quick pitstop for some Sea Lions and other wildlife at the White Islets before we continued the search. While sitting watching our entertaining pinnipeds, we got word from another boat that there was a pod of Orca spotted in Howe Sound! Good thing we had already made it across the Strait, it meant we weren’t too far away from these animals, so we headed over that way, and started to see the big black dorsal fins of the orca cutting through the smooth green waters of Howe Sound as we approached. It was a group of 4, with one large male in the group. These 4 were identified as the T123s:

T123 Sidney ♀ (~1985)
T123A Stanley ♂ (2000)
T123C Lucky ♀ (2012)
T123D Darcy ♀ (2018)

This pod is always a delight to see, not only because of Stanley and his 6-foot-tall dorsal fin but also because they have an interesting history to them. Sidney and Stanley are known for hunting prey very close to shore, and at one point this got them in trouble. During a hunt, they got a little too close, and with the tide heading out, they got stuck. The good thing about the ocean is that what goes out always comes back in, so with some help staying comfortable from humans, they eventually got loose from the rocks and continued on with their day. Interestingly, during this stranding Sidney was actually pregnant! With such a stressful time, and with the additional gravitational pressure of being outside of the water the success of this pregnancy was very lucky, which is where T123C Lucky gets her name from! Today they weren’t being too risky close to shore and were instead travelling near the centre of the Channel, seeming to be doing a large circle around the islands in the centre of the sound. Soon our time with them was up, so we left them to their travels.

After departing the T123s we started making our way back out into the Strait of Georgia. The area outside the Sound has been another one of those hot spots for Humpbacks, so we hoped that we would be able to locate one here on the way back home. We were correct, and we found not one, but two different humpbacks nearby! These whales were not travelling together, but they were close enough together that we were able to spot both of them within an hour.

Unfortunately, our first humpback was very, very tail-shy, and we never captured a good fluke shot to confirm their ID… however, their dorsal fin was unique enough to ID from instead. This whale was ID’d as Cassiopeia (BCY0976), a male Humpback commonly seen in the Salish Sea, but for some reason, is not commonly seen on our tours! We confirmed his ID by comparing photos in 3 different humpback catalogues, his most recent photos in Happywhale, and a blog we posted way back in 2021! His dorsal has changed a bit over the years, but the white marking on the back edge of his dorsal as well as some of the scratches on the top edge of his dorsal were all used to help ID him.

After leaving Cassiopeia, we travelled a little further until we found Polyphemus (BCZ0342) travelling along. Polyphemus was being much more cooperative than Cassiopeia and we were able to get a nice clear fluke shot from them.

You might have noticed that we referred to Polyphemus as ‘them’ instead of being male or female. That is because we do not actually know their gender. Humpbacks show very little sexual dimorphism, meaning it is very hard to visually tell males and females apart as they look basically the same. Female humpbacks have one distinctive feature known as a Hemispherical lobe which is a grapefruit-sized bump on the underside of their peduncle. This bump is very hard to see, so unless we spot a humpback travelling with a calf or we are able to photograph this bump, it is rare for us to know an individual humpback’s gender. However, according to Happywhale, Polyphemus has had sightings going back to at least 2004, meaning they are at least 19 years old. At this point, if Polyphemus was a female, they should have had a couple of calves already. Therefore, it is likely that Polyphemus is a male. Hopefully one day we will be able to get a photo of their peduncle so we can confirm!

Please enjoy these photos by Marine Naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen.

November 1, 2023 - The T123s and some Humpbacks near Howe Sound

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