March 17, 2023 - The T036A's & the T065A's by Chrome Island

Today we were super lucky and left the harbour with a couple of different reports of whales in the area. They were both further north than Nanaimo, we we loaded up in the open boat and started the northern journey! The first was closer to home, a shore based report of a couple of blows near Rathtrevor park in Parksville. Once we got to the general area we slowed down and started the search. Unfortunately, nothing ever appeared for us, so we continued our northern travels. We later learned from more land based reports that these two blows were likely a pair of humpbacks that were travelling together, very close to shore. They continued north but we never ended up seeing them.

Instead we got to see a couple of pods of Transient Orca (or Biggs) hunting and socializing together in Lambert Channel! This channel is located between Denman and Hornby island, getting close to the northernmost extent of our range. Travelling up there was a little cold today, but what we saw warmed our hearts! There was 10 whales total here between the two pods. Both of these pods have members who have been known to strike out on their own, but after looking at our photos we are pretty confident these are the members of each pod that were present:

T036A ♀ Leland (1990)
T036A1 ♀ Tierna (2005)
T036A2 ♀ Kailas (2012)
T036A3 ♂ Storm/Mike III (2015)
T036A5 (2021)

T065A ♀ Artemis (1986)
T065A2 ♂ Ooxjaa (2004)
T065A3 ♂ Amir (2007)
T065A4 ♀ Ellifrit (2011)
T065A6 ♀ Callisto (2018)

Generally, it was the T036As and the T065As! There was only one whale who was missing today and that was Indy (T065A5, 2014, ♂). Last we saw of him was in September of last year when he was looking happy and healthy!

This group today seemed to be hunting, and it was likely a Steller Sea Lion as there was big groups of them nearby. We got to see lots of surface activity, including tail slaps, breaching, back dives, and some backwards swimming! It was a sight to behold! We also heard vocalizations under the water, we think thanks to a nearby Oceanwise research boat who had a hydrophone dropped in the water. It was great to watch the gulls come and and start cleaning up after these whale as well, as the hunting came to an end.

Soon our hour with the whales came to and end, and we started the journey back home but not before stopping for sea lions first! We not only got to see a big group of sea lions on the rocks, but there was a couple special surprises in there too! There was an unusually high amount of bald eagles hanging out on the same rocks as the sea lions, with about an even mix between the adult and juveniles. Did you know that bald eagles don’t develop those white head and tail feathers until they are about 5 years old? We’ve included a chart for comparison at the photos of the bald eagles.

We also saw something that naturalist Val was super excited about, a branded sea lion! Not just a branded sea lion, but it happened to be the same one that we researched for a recent social media post here. From this research we know that this Male Steller Sea Lion is 12 years old now and was born off the Oregon coast! It’s not often we know this much specifics about the pinnipeds, but that’s what the brands are good for! It makes tracking the individuals way easier and long term research on them less invasive than if they had to recapture the animals every time they needed data from them.

After the sea lions we headed home to Nanaimo. It was a great trip filled to the brim with interesting wildlife! Please enjoy the photos from the day taken by Marine Naturalist Val Watson.

T036A1 Tierna (back) with her mother T036A Leland (front)

Flukes up! Do you see those scratches in the white part of the fluke?

The Matriarchs: T065A Artemis (left) and T036A Leland (right).

Trio of orca - look at how close they are swimming together!

T065A4 Callisto - it appears she has some new battle wounds. This pod is known to take down Steller sea lions, so those scratches are likely from one of those!

Double trouble! T036A2 Kailas (back) and T065A4 Ellifrit (front)

The gulls were also frolicking during this tour.

Unfortunately, not all our photos turn out perfect. Some end us as whale-y bad photos like this one!

T065A2 Ooxjaa (left) and T036A2 Kailas (far right) with two younger whales between them

A branded Steller sea lion who is 12 years old!

Here is the comparison chart for bald eagles made by Avian Report - click on the photo to read their full article describing the differences between a Juvenile, Immature, and Mature Bald eagle!

An adult Bald eagle dominating a juvenile Bald eagle.

An immature Bald Eagle (right, ~2 1/2 years old) trying to dominate a juvenile Bald eagle (~>1 year old)

Jilann LechnerMarch 17, 2023WhalesComment