May 12, 2023 - Indy-pendant

It was a picturesque day on the water, the type of day that beckons one to the boat. The guests that answered the call today were heavily rewarded with a T-Party around Parksville. A T-Party is when multiple matrilines of orca come together, this is usually a joyous occasion where we typically see a lot of surface action from the whales.
In this T-Party we saw The T065B matriline as well as the T099 Matriline. If these 2 power house families weren’t enough, we had one more very interesting fellow there, T065A5 Indy. All those present today were:

T065A5 Indy ♂ (2014)

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

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

At around 9 years old, Indy is known for travelling away from the rest of his family the T065A’s. This would be considered odd on multiple levels. Firstly male orcas like Indy tend to stay with Mom their entire lives. Secondly, a 9 year old orca is similar in development to a 9 year old human child. Even though Indy has been documented travelling away from his family for close to a year now, he seems to be doing quite well on his own. Some would even say he’s very Indy-pendent.
Despite Indy not being with his mom and siblings, he was hanging out with some close relations. T065B Chunk is Indy’s aunt and throughout the entire encounter Indy could be seen frolicking with T099D Puck who is of similar age. T099B Holly was also joining in on playtime with her younger friends.
After spending some time with our T-Party we went to check out our California sealions who were enjoying the sunshine on some log booms. Our final stop of the day was the Gabriola bluffs where we were lucky enough to watch our cormorants working on this year’s nest by bringing back moss and twigs to the cliffs.

Photos taken by Marine Naturalist Aly Kohlman and Carmen Murphy.

T099 Bella, T065B Chunk, T065B3 and T099C Barakat. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T065A5 Indy and T099D Puck. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T099D Puck and T065A5 IndyPhoto by Aly Kohlman.

Left T065B1 and T065B2. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T065B Chunk, T099C Barakat, T099E, T065B1, T065B3. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T065B1 and T65A5 Indy. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Tail and T099B Holly. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T065B1 Birdsall. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Jilann LechnerMay 12, 2023WhalesComment