It was a beautiful night for a boat ride as we made our way south where we met up with the T65B family.

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

We followed the small family to Porlier Pass where their movements suddenly became more erratic and less predictable than before. The currents were flowing pretty strong through Porlier and at first, we thought the little ones might be playing in them. It didn’t take long to realize what was actually happening.

The family was hunting and it didn’t take long for that hunt to turn into a meal. The T65Bs are very proficient hunters and usually make quick work of their prey take down so it wasn’t surprising to see little of the actual hunt and only the few remnants that remained. When our orcas make a successful kill, all family members share in the meal.

Often when our orca are hunting we notice sea birds will gather for the chance at picking off the leftovers. This is initially how we knew that our orca had been successful. Watching an eagle flying overhead we noticed that it was carrying what looked like intestines. While this is sad for whatever was eaten (likely a harbour seal), it went on to feed 4 whales, an eagle and likely eaglets.

The T65Bs recently made headlines when they went for a little vacation down to California. It’s amazing how far an orca can travel. Did you know they can travel over 100km a day? In May we were with this small family outside Nanaimo, then in June they were in Monterey Bay, California and again in July they are back in Nanaimo.

After all our whale excitement we went on to view our stellar sealions which were fighting over the last few spots on the rocks as the tide was coming in. We also saw our harbour seals including some brand new baby seals.

On our way back to the harbour we made one final stop near the Gabriola bluff where the eagles have a nest with 2 hungry eaglets. The bluffs are where our cormorants nest and today it was an all you can eat buffet for our eagles!

Our onboard Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Des Poier got some great photos of all this wildlife during the tour, which can be viewed below!