April 25, 2023 - The T-party continues - 19 whales today!

It was a great day for a tour - the sun was shining and it’s finally starting to feel like spring here on Vancouver Island!

We started with a high-energy group excited to get out on the water and find our whales. Raring to go we pushed off and headed south through Dodd Narrows with our eyes peeled. We had very little wind making it a great day for spotting, as we scanned the shores for those iconic dorsal fins. As Kula (our semi-covered vessel) travelled south in Stuart Channel and into Trincomali Channel, Cascadia (our open vessel) searched Pylades Channel. We were taking in the scenery of the beautiful Southern Gulf Islands when Cascadia spotted a group of orca just South of Porlier Pass! Today’s group consisted of a total of 19 individuals:

T036A Leland ♀ (1990)
T036A1 Tierna ♀ (2005)
T036A1A (2022)
T036A2 Kailas ♀ (2012)
T036A3 Storm / Mike II ♂ (2015)
T036A5 (2021)

T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)

T065B Chunk ♀ (1993)
T065B1 Birdsall ♂ (2011)
T065B2 Nettle ♂ (2019)
T065B3 (2023)

T124C Cooper ♂ (1992)

T124A Kittiwake ♀ (1984)
T124A4 Sabio ♀ (2010)
T124A4A (2021)
T124A6 Kasuun ♂ (2016)
T124A7 ♀ (2021)

T125A Jetsam ♂ (1998)
T128 Flotsam ♂ (1988)

Today we bore witness to a T-party! A T-party, or Transient Party, occurs when multiple pods of Transient Orca socialize and travel together. These parties can sometimes occur over multiple days. T-parties are a perfect opportunity to mate and for calves to socialize outside their matriline.

Today’s T-party was very active, showing off many different behaviours including back diving (leaping out of the water and reentering on its back), pectoral (or pec) slapping (side fins slapping on the water’s surface), porpoising (leaping partially out of the water while travelling at speed), breaching (propelling at least two-thirds of its body out of the water), cartwheeling ( just like with humans, travelling through the air sideways), tail slapping, and fluke waving (lifting and holding its tails out of the water).

After departing from our exciting party, we continued the day in search of other wildlife. We made a brief stop at ‘Stinky Rocks’ (the unofficial name for a small group of islets south of Gabriola Pass) to see some California and Steller sea lions, into the Flat Top islands to visit some sleepy Harbour seals, and stopping by the Gabriola Bluffs where our Cormorants are currently busily building their nests for the spring season.

Join a tour today for your own chance to see these amazing behaviours in the wild!

Please enjoy the photos from the day’s tour below taken by Marine Naturalists Desarae (Des) Poier and Vanessa Vereschahen.

T036A2 Kailas is a great example of why it’s important to stay up to date on new markings or notches on our whales. Kailas has a large chunk missing from the tip of her dorsal that occurred in the last couple of years.

**T036A2 Kailas Identification photo**. As seen in Photo-identification Catalogue, Population Status, and Distribution of Bigg’s Killer Whales known from Coastal Waters of British Columbia, Canada by Jared R. Towers et al.

T036A2 Kailas (middle) with youngsters on either side. Photo by Des Poier.

T124C Cooper with some companions. Photo by Des Poier.

Breaching orca are always amazing to see, but sometimes hard to photograph - you never know when (and where) they will pop up! Photo by Des Poier.

Left to right: T12A4A and her mother T124A4 Sabio. Photo by Des Poier.

T124A7 following close to her mother T124A Kittiwake. Photo by Des Poier.

Left to right: T036A1 Tierna and her mother T036A Leland. Photo by Des Poier.

T125A Jetsam. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Party time! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Time to dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Left to right: T124C Cooper and T128 Flotsam. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bouncing baby! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T124C Cooper. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A Great Blue Heron looking for lunch. Photo by Des Poier.

Flippers up! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

‘Stinky Rocks’ - a favourite lounging spot for our California and Steller sea lions. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Juvenile Bald Eagle on the rocks. Specifically, the “Stinky Rocks” islets! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A flock of gulls inside the islands. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Do you know what the white is on the rocks? Hint: It comes from birds! Photo by Des Poier.

Cormorant nests in the sandstone. Photo by Des Poier.

A line of Cormorants on the Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Des Poier.

Our Semi-Covered vessel Kula. Photo by Des Poier.

Jilann LechnerApril 27, 2023Comment