Today we started our adventure heading southbound through the Southern gulf islands in search of whales. This route is a particular favourite of ours as it gives us the opportunity to show guests both the flora and the fauna of our area.
While travelling down Trincomali channel we were able to locate the T099’s near Galiano Island. They were travelling along its coastline during our encounter with them today.

Here’s a list of today’s pod members:

T099 Bella (~1984,♀)
T099B Holly (2007,♀)
T099C Barakat (2009,♂)
T099D Puck (2015,♂)
T099E (2021,♀)

The T099’s have been spotted in our area frequently in the past couple of years. This pod is pretty easy to ID thanks to Holly, the eldest daughter of the pod, having a very distinct comb-like edge on her dorsal fin.
The T099’s are thought to be related to a number of other pods frequently seen in our area, including the T036A’s, T036B’s, and T137’s. It is believed that T036 Flapjack is the super mom who raised these 4 very successful matriarchs. This family tree currently consists of 21 members (17 living, 4 deceased) - this statistic is incredible because only about 50% of orcas survive their first year of life. This family line has clearly defied the odds! We hope to see many more little ones from these four pods in the coming years!

Besides our family of orca, we also spotted a herd of seals snoozing on the rocks, many sea lions both in the water and up on the rocks, and a trio of Surf scoters. After leaving our orca we retraced our steps and continued back up Trincomali Channel before heading back to home port.

T099 Bella and a family member coming to the surface

T099B Holly with a perfect eyepatch photo!

Double species photo! T099B Holly and a gull!

Matriarch T099 Bella bringing her head above the surface

T099B Holly - can you spot her little chin?

Left to right: T099B Holly and T099C Barakat

Today we got to witness a behaviour with our sea lions that we don’t see very often - Porpoising! What is porpoising, and why do sea lions do it?
Porpoising is defined as moving forward with a rising and falling motion, usually above water and then underwater. This interesting behaviour is used to increase speed. In today’s case, these sea lions may have caught wind that there were mammal-eating orcas around and were trying to get out of their way so they wouldn’t turn into a snack!

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalist Aly Kohlman.

March 12, 2023 - T099's off of Galiano Island

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