June 23, 2023 - Family reunion with the T124s!

What a day on the water! We started the day with a report of whales not too far from Nanaimo, down south in the Southern Gulf Islands. It was a t-party that had formed in Stuart Channel, with 9 whales spending their whole day socializing. This was a special t-party since it was also a family reunion! Usually, these pods will travel separately since the younger females dispersed from their mother a while ago (or relatively recently in Sabio’s case). Females will usually leave their moms when they start to have calves of their own since there can be a bit of a power struggle within the pod, and if the Biggs orca get their pod sizes too large they will have decreased hunting success. Since they are going for more intelligent prey, other marine mammals, their prey can detect the danger easier if there are more whales around. Larger pods causing easier detection by their prey would mean a decrease in health for all the whales, so that’s thought to be why they will strike out on their own. In Bonaparte’s case, she didn’t have her own kids and hasn’t been recorded with a calf of her own, so we aren’t exactly sure why she would’ve left.

During a t-party the main goal is socialization though, so larger pod size doesn’t really matter. The 9 whales we were seeing today were:

T124A Kittiwake ♀ (1984)
T124A6 Kasuun ♂ (2016)
T124A7 ♀ (2021)

T124A2 Elkugu ♀ (2001)
T124A2A Agafia ♂ (2013)
T124A2B Litton ♀ (2016)

T124A4 Sabio ♀ (2010)
T124A4A (2021)

T124A1 Bonapartes ♀ (1996)

They were doing all sorts of socialization behaviour including breaching, tail slaps, pec slaps, and lots of vocalization. We even caught one of the young males, Agafia, getting a little bit frisky in the group. You might be asking yourself, wouldn't all the whales there be related to Agafia? The answer is yes, but he most likely wouldn’t have actually been mating with any of these whales, more just getting excited and experimenting.

You’ll notice the pink “sea snake” in some of the photos below.

This group continued socializing through our time with them in the morning trip into the afternoon, and even past that. It’s pretty rare to see so much activity from the orca since it takes a huge amount of energy to have that much activity, so seeing it on both tours was a rare and special experience.

The photos today were taken by naturalists Aly Kohlman, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereschehen.

T124A2A Agafia poking his face out of the water with his Aunt T124A1 Bonapartes in the background. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A1 Bonapartes breaching out of the water! 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A1 Agafia. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A2A Agafia’s dorsal fin as he travelled in Stuart Channel. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A1 Bonapartes travelling through the water. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A2A Agafia getting frisky during the party. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The sea snake is out in full force. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

One of the babies jumping out of the water during the party (likely T124A7). 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A1 Bonapartes in front of T124A Kittiwake. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Flukes up! 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A2 Elkugu surfacing and showing off her eye patch. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A2B Litton Surfacing amongst her partying family members. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

One of the family members with their pectoral fin out of the water. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Another baby breaching! 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A1 Bonapartes doing a tail slap. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Another tail lob. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A7 breaching. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Touchdown by T124A7. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Matching flukes of a mom and calf. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A2 Elkugu breaching. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Another breach! 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Big Steller Sea Lion on Sticky Rock. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Look at the size difference between the adult male and the others. 10:30 AM. Photo by Carmen Murphy

Sleepy Sea Lions. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A great blue heron among the mussels. 10:30 Tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124A Kittiwake and T124A7. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Litton, Kittiwake and T124A7. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Baby Breaching. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A2 Elkugu moving through the water. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A4 Sabio and T124A6 Kasuun travelling together. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

T124A7 doing a back dive. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Kittiwake breaching. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Harbour seals hauled out on the rocks. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

A little fat happy seal on the rock. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Big chunky Steller Sea Lion at Sticky rocks. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Some Cormorants on the dead tree along Gabriola Island. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen

Pinecone and Freddy hanging out in the nest. 3:30 Tour. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen