This afternoon we headed back into the Strait of Georgia and headed across towards the mainland in a beautiful area called Howe Sound.

Howe Sound, located on the southwestern coast of British Columbia, is a breathtaking marine fjord that never fails to captivate visitors with its natural beauty. With its deep blue waters, dramatic mountains, and pristine wilderness, Howe Sound offers a tranquil escape from bustling urban life. The sound is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including seals, sea lions, porpoises, and like today, even the occasional pod of orca.

Today it was the T123s we found travelling in Howe Sound, with Stanley’s 6-foot-tall black dorsal fin capturing the attention of our guests and staff alike. All the members of the T123s were present today, which would be:

T123 Sidney ♀ (~1985)
T123A Stanley ♂ (2000)
T123C Lucky ♀ (2012)
T123D Darcy ♀ (2018)

Although the large males are more impressive to look at, it’s actually the ladies of our orca that are the more interesting socially. The females are the leaders, meaning orca have a Matriarchal Society. Sidney travels with her three kids, making all of the decisions for the pod. This structure is thought to be why orca will have such a long post-reproductive lifespan. A female orca will go through menopause at around 50 years old but can live to be up to 100 years old! Usually, animals in the wild won’t have much use if they aren’t reproducing, but with intelligent animals, it will actually be beneficial to keep them around. Since the matriarch has the most experience they are super helpful for the rest of the pod, especially in times of change or hard times. This knowledge will help her to feed her offspring keep them healthier and therefore in a better position to reproduce and help to maintain her own genes. It’s a great system!

Soon our time with the T123s was over so we left them in Howe Sound and started the journey back across towards Nanaimo. About halfway across near Halibut Bank, we spotted something in the distance. It was more blows! This time it was humpbacks. As we were approaching we saw them lift their tails up into the air meaning they went for a longer dive. This is great since that’s what we need to figure out who it is we are looking at! Looking at our photos and referencing our catalogues against newer photos in HappyWhale we quickly determined these two to be Schooner (KEY0045) and Zephyr’s 2021 calf (BCZ0414 calf 2021)! Interestingly, Schooner is also a 2021 calf of Zig Zag. We have been seeing a lot of young whales in our waters lately, which might be because they returned earlier from the breeding ground since they haven’t reached sexual maturity yet. The humpbacks will be in our waters for the summer to feed and build up their fat reserves. Halibut Bank is a great place for feeding since it is a high-productivity zone. The underwater hill helps with oxygen and nutrient exchange in the water column since when the tide changes the water will be pushed towards the surface in this area, providing the necessary elements to be used by the phytoplankton and zooplankton in the area for growth.

These small critters are what the humpbacks are after since they are feeding on krill and small schooling fish. They take in huge mouthfuls of water and food mixed together and then push the water out through their baleen plates, only leaving behind the tasty morsels to eat.

Since it was getting close to the end of our time here, we ended up leaving Schooner and Zephyrs 2021 calf behind and headed back into Nanaimo. Our onboard naturalist Aly Kohlman captured some amazing moments from this tour which can be viewed below.

June 22, 2023 3:30 - T123s, Schooner, and Zephyr's 2021 calf

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