The morning of July 14 was a unique trip since we came across a whale not 100m from our dock! One of the transient orca who is known for cruising harbours had shown up in Nanaimo, Noah!

T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)

Noah is one of the members of the T049As who is frequently seen travelling away from the rest of his family, but usually, they’re not too far away. Today we didn’t end up finding them nearby, but later shore based reports placed them about an hour behind Noah’s travels. Our boat did try and find them, but with no success.

Noah was very funny today, we found him just about to enter the Nanaimo Harbour, and there were quite a few spectators on the water and not willing ones. It was training day for the Nanaimo Yacht Club, so there were lots of little sailboats in Noah’s path. Boy were the sailors surprised when Noah’s massive dorsal fin popped up next to them! He passed the by and continued his typical cruise: a loop out beside New Castle Island, and back out the south entrance after not too long.

After his trip through the harbour, Noah started heading north along the Vancouver Island shoreline before turning and heading out deeper into the Strait. At this point, we left him behind and headed into the strait ourselves to see what other wildlife we would be able to find.

Our eyes were peeled, keeping an eye out for the telltale sign of a whale in the area: a blow! Before long we spotted a misty spout on the horizon ahead of us. It was a pair of humpback whales Neowise (KEX0068) and Chi (BCX0414calf2021)! These two were travelling together doing what was likely deep, feeding dives. Each time they dove they lifted their large impressive tail flukes out of the water, making an impressive display. These large flukes are what we use to ID our whales! Lucky for us, these two have very distinct tails, making ID very easy. Watching these two hanging out with each other was an amazing sight to behold. Before long we decided it was time to leave them behind and continue on our journey and then suddenly, another humpback appeared! It was Windy (BCY0893)! Windy is another unique whale who can be quite easy to ID thanks to a beautiful black and white pattern on the underside of his tail. He also has a very distinct dorsal fin making it so we can ID him even if he decides to not lift up that wonderful tail of his. Today though, his tail was on display and we got to watch him travel.

While watching Windy we also got a spotting of a smaller local cetacean: a Harbour Porpoise! Thanks to their small size and fast travel speeds getting photographic evidence of these little guys can be tricky, but luckily our naturalist was fast with her shooting and got a shot!

We also saw some Harbour seals and Sea Lions along the way before finishing our voyage with a stop at the impressive Gabriola Bluffs. What a day! All the photos from this adventure were taken by Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereshahen and can be viewed below!

July 14, 2023, 10:30 - Noah-way, there's Orca in the harbour!

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