Today after taking off from the dock and making our way into the Georgia straight we got to see the T037A’s!

The group was quite active displaying hunting behaviour broken up by excited breaching, cartwheels, peck slaps and tail lobbing. This could be due to a celebration after a kill or a form of enthusiastic communication between the pod members. The T037As consists of 4 members:

T037A Volker ♀ (1994)
T037A2 Inky ♂ (2009)
T037A3 Spinnaker ♂ (2013)
T037A4 Crinkle ♀ (2015)

The transient orca tend to travel in smaller groups compared to the other ecotypes found in BC: the resident and offshore orca. The reason for this is their preferred prey and hunting method! Transient orca hunt other mammals, typically seals and sea lions. Both these species have extremely well-evolved hearing and eyesight making the orca rely on ambush methods and longer periods of silence when they are hunting. When their group size gets too large, it makes sneaking up on their prey much more difficult, hence the smaller group sizes! The T037As also have another estranged member: T037A1 Inyo! Inyo tends to travel by herself, maybe because they had too many members in their pod for their hunting style. It’s hard to know with the complexity of the whales social lives.

It was great spending some time celebrating with the T037As, but soon it was time to leave them and see what other wildlife we could find. We managed to find some Steller sea lions, bald eagles, double ceased cormorants and harbour seals!

Steller Sea Lions display an adaptation called sexual dimorphism where the females and males are much different, this is seen in other species as well like black widow spiders, peacocks and a number of others. In Steller sea lions this means the males can easily weigh three times that of the females! Males need extra weight since it helps them to defend their territory during the breeding season. They can go up to a month without eating while they defend the beaches, meaning the extra fat helps them to keep their energy up. Another one of their sexually dimorphic traits is their large blubbery mane! This helps store fat but also helps to protect vital organs as things get heated in the competition for space in the breeding grounds. We are lucky to still be seeing these guys since they will soon start their migration up north to the breeding grounds.

Another pinniped sighted where the Harbor seals! Harbour seals are much smaller than the Steller Sea Lions, only weighing around 300 lbs. The male is slightly larger than the females but not to the extent displayed in sea lion species. These adorable Little Rock sausages are seen in the waters off Vancouver Island year-round, unlike the migratory sea lions.

We were also lucky enough to get a view of the Bald Eagle nest that is along Gabriola Island. The young eagles are starting to stretch their wings a bit more, being seen climbing higher in the branches of their nest tree.

Our Marine Naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Vanessa Vereschahen captured some amazing photos from the day, which can be viewed below.