October 26, 2023 - Double species day, with double the Orca encounters!
Hold onto your socks, this trip was a wild one! It was another gorgeous Autumn day when our vessels pushed off the dock. We had caught word of some potential orca sightings near Apex, an area on the other side of the Strait of Georgia. After crossing we finally located what we were looking for - there were 4 Transient/Bigg’s orca travelling by! After snapping some photos, we were able to ID these whales as the T037s:
T037 Rocky III ♀ (1979)
T037B Harald ♀ (1998)
T037B1 Lance ♂ (2012)
T037B3 (2022)
These 4 were spotted spy hopping (bringing their heads/faces out of the water) and tail slapping. It is likely they were celebrating a hunt. After they finished celebrating they started to do deeper dives. We watched them for a bit longer before we headed on out, this time hoping to locate a humpback and make this trip a double species day. Our vessels split up to cover as much ground as possible. This turned out to be super successful, as both boats were able to locate Humpbacks! Our Semi-covered boat Kula found a group of 4 where Polyphemus (BCZ0342), Manta (BCZ0155), Divot (BCX1057), Split Fluke (BCX1068), and a few others were travelling and fluking together. Our open boat Cascadia found Bump (BCY0771) and an Unknown who unfortunately refused to fluke during our encounter. We usually rely on Humpbacks fluking to be able to confirm their IDs - the pattern on the underside of their flukes (or tail) is as unique to them as a fingerprint is to us. When we find whales like Bump’s friend, we sometimes are able to ID them by their dorsal fins, but unfortunately, we were unable to do that for this trip. If we are able to determine who was hanging out today we will update this blog.
All of these Humpbacks were spotted close to Galiano Island, one of the large islands in the Southern Gulf island archipelago. This was perfect for us as we had a direct route back to our home port through the gorgeous Gulf Islands after we were done seeing our Humpbacks.
We figured that that would be the end of our whale sightings for the day - we had already seen both species of whale we commonly see in our area, so how could it get any better?
Well, by seeing more orca of course! After departing from our Humpbacks we stumbled onto ANOTHER group of Bigg’s orca, this time they were ID’d as the T123s and T046C2 Sam:
T123 Sidney ♀ (~1985)
T123A Stanley ♂ (2000)
T123C Lucky ♀ (2012)
T123D Darcy ♀ (2018)
T046C2 Sam ♀ (2009)
You might notice that there is one odd whale out in this group. T046C2, also known as Sam, has been spotted travelling with various pods all through this year. It is quite uncommon for female Bigg’s to travel by themselves, but Sam isn’t your usual orca. Back in 2013, Sam ended up trapped in remote Weeteam Bay. At this time, Sam was only 4 years old - very young to be fending for herself. While trapped, Sam started to develop what is known as Peanut head, a condition related to poor body condition usually as a result of starvation. Sam was struggling to eat while in this bay and it was starting to show. Eventually, Sam was lured out of the harbour. This event may have changed what would have been her normal behaviours (sticking with her pod to learn how to hunt efficiently, where to go, etc.), leading to her preferring to travel alone with short encounters with other Bigg’s whales when she feels like it.
The T123s are a favourite pod in our area, as the large male of the pod T123A Stanley is named after the famous Stanley Park in Vancouver. Seeing Stanley travelling beside his mother and sisters is always incredible, as his dorsal fin is easily double the size of any of the girls’!
After seeing orca and humpback in a single trip, you’d think we would be done with the day. But that was not the case today, as we got word of another species of interest at False Narrows, a small waterway close to our home port. We scooted over there and were excited to find a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins travelling! While dolphins are generally common along Vancouver Island’s coasts, it isn’t common for us to see them on our trips. Pacific white-sided dolphins are more commonly seen around the Northern part of the island. In our last 3 seasons, we have only seen them on our tours 4 times!
After leaving the dolphins behind we made our way back to the harbour. It was another great day on the Salish Sea, filled with tons of encounters with many spectacular animals.
Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Des Poier and Val Watson.
Left to right: T037B Harald, T037B3 and T037B1 Lance. Photo by Des Poier.
Taking a look at us! Photo by Des Poier.
T037B1 Lance travelling. Photo by Des Poier.
BCX1057 Divot fluking shallowly. Photo by Des Poier.
BCZ0155 Manta - look at all those splotches and dots on their fluke! Photo by Des Poier.
BCZ0155 Manta diving. Photo by Des Poier.
BCX1057 Divot diving. Photo by Des Poier.
The corner of BCX1057 Divot’s fluke, where you can see how she got her name. Photo by Des Poier.
Rain-blow! Photo by Des Poier.
BCZ0342 Polyphemus fluking in the distance. Photo by Des Poier.
T123A Stanley with his super tall dorsal. Photo by Val Watson.
The ladies of the T123s! Left to right: T123D Darcy, T123C Lucky and T123 Sidney. Photo by Val Watson.
T123C Lucky following her mother closely. Photo by Val Watson.
T123A Stanley. Photo by Val Watson.
The full pod! Left to right: T123D Darcy (tip of dorsal), T123C Lucky, T123 Sidney, and T123A Stanley. Photo by Des Poier.
T123 Sidney beside her eldest (and only) son T123A Stanley. Photo by Des Poier.
T123A Stanley travelling. Photo by Des Poier.
An uncommon sighting for us - a small pod of Pacific White-sided Dolphins! Photo by Val Watson.
The Pacific-white sided dolphins were seen travelling along the shoreline. Photo by Val Watson.
A lone dolphin catching up with the pod. Photo by Des Poier.
Sleepy harbour seals all balanced on the rocks. Photo by Val Watson.
A cuddle puddle of sea lions. Photo by Val Watson.
Nap time for a very large Male Steller sea lion. Photo by Val Watson.
What a shot! This sea lion launched itself headfirst into the icy waters below. Photo by Val Watson.
A large male California sea lion giving us the side eye. Photo by Des Poier.
Now that is an interesting sleeping position. Photo by Des Poier.
Dramatic as always. Photo by Des Poier.
Fighting is a constant at our sea lion haulouts. Photo by Des Poier.
A Common murre. Photo by Val Watson.
A group of Harlequin ducks. Photo by Val Watson.