July 20, 2023, 10:30 - T-party off Nanoose Bay and Neowise and Harpy in the Strait

It was a beautiful sunny day on the morning of July 20th, and we had all three of our boats head out! We had shore-based reports of Orca in the area, as well as rumours of humpbacks not too far away as well. Sounds like a double species tour was in our future! We spread our boats out to cover more ground as we searched, and it wasn’t long before two of our boats found whales. One of them found the group of orca travelling north off the shores of Nanoose Bay, and the other found a lone humpback travelling further out in the strait. Let’s start with the orca. When we approached we realized that there was too many orca there to just be one pod, so we had ourselves a travelling T-party! The pods that we were able to ID there today were the T034s, T036As, T037s, T065A5, and T065Bs! Those pods have the following members:

T034 Grace ♀ (≤ 1969)
T034A Pachamama ♀ (2007)
T034B Sonder (2017)

T036A Leland ♀ (1990)
T036A2 Kailas ♀ (2012)
T036A3 Storm / Mike III ♂ (2015)
T036A5 (2021)

T037 Rocky III/Pizzafin ♀ (1979)
T037B Harald ♀ (1998)
T037B1 Lance ♂ (2012)
T037B3 (2022)

T065A5 Indy ♂ (2014)

T065B Chunk ♀ (1993)
T065B1 Birdsall ♂ (2011)
T065B2 Nettle ♂ (2019)
T065B3 (2023)

Today there wasn’t much actual partying going on with this group, they were just hanging out, enjoying each other’s company, and then they went into foraging mode. You can tell they switch modes since they were travelling quite close together when we were first seeing them, and then once they made it through the islands off the coast of Nanoose Bay, they spread out into smaller groups spread a couple of miles across the Strait of Georgia.

We travelled with them for a while until our time was up and we left them to see what other whales could be found!

While Kula found the orca, Cascadia found a humpback. This young humpback was easy to identify thanks to a very beat-up dorsal fin…it was Mammoth/Ocean’s 2022 calf! This humpback wasn’t up to much, but it was great getting to see them for a little while before continuing on to the orca.

After the orca, another set of humpbacks was found, another younger set, this time 2020 calves. It was Harpy (BCY0458 calf 2020) and Neowise (BCY0160 calf 2020)! Harpy is the 2020 calf of Raptor, while Neowise is the 2020 calf of Heather. While pregnant with these two whales, their mothers spent nearly the whole summer side by side, so much so that we dubbed them “the best friends of the Salish Sea”!

It seems the connection travelled beyond the womb and these two have been seen together quite frequently as they have returned to the Salish Sea after their year with their Mom. Today there must have been “ants in their pants” as these whales got up to no good. There is a rare behaviour with our humpback whales called “mugging” where some whales get curious and come up to interact with the vessel. Today was one such occasion as these two decided to hold our boats hostage. Since we have to shut down our engines when a whale comes closer than the regulated distance (100m for adult humpback whales) if they decide they like your boat, you aren’t allowed to leave until they decide you are no longer interesting.

Today they decided to do lots of activity next to the boat, leading to great views of their pectoral fins, tails, and all the parasites that riddle their bodies. After a while, it seems they were more interested in slapping their pectoral fins around and lost interest in our boats, so we were able to sneak away and return to the harbour.

It was great to have seen all these whales and had such unique experiences while with them! The naturalists on board, Aly Kohlman, Des Poier, and Val Watson, were able to capture some amazing photos from the day which can all be viewed below!

T037 Rocky III (right), T036A Leland and friend. Photo by Val Watson.

T037 Rocky III (right) and T036A5. Photo by Val Watson.

T037 Rocky III (right), T036A5 and T036A2 Kailas. Photo by Val Watson.

T034B Sonder in front of her mom T034 Grace. Photo by Val Watson.

T065A5 Indy playing with his new favourite toy of the day. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T036A3 Mike (front), T036A1 Tierna and T037B1 Lance. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A little chin out of the water! Photo by Des Poier.

KEX0068 Neowise has some lovely pec fins! Photo by Des Poier.

Neowise shows a bit of belly! Photo by Des Poier.

Harpy’s very white pec fin. Photo by Val Watson.

Mammoth’s 2022 calf. Photo by Val Watson.

A lovely fluke from Mammoth’s 2022 calf. Photo by Val Watson.

Dorsal fin of Neowise. Photo by Val Watson.

Humpback travelling. Photo by Val Watson.

A close-up of someone’s blowhole. Photo by Val Watson.

Harpy’s dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Harpy’s top fluke. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A nice close-up of some sea-lice and humpback whale hairs! Photo by Val Watson.

Some very large barnacles on this whale’s body! Photo by Val Watson.

Two Pigeon Guillemots in a fight over a fish - you can see their lunch falling beside them! Photo by Des Poier.

Jilann LechnerJuly 20, 2023Whales1 Comment