T037B Harald ♀ (1998)
T037B1 Lance ♂ (2012)
T037B3 (2022)

It’s always an exciting day when we get to see breaching orcas! We pulled up to a small family of orcas outside of Porlier Pass and were delighted to see a lot of tail slapping and breaching. The youngest in particular seemed to be breaching over and over again. Orca can breach and tail slap for all kinds of reasons but typically when we see breaching on tour it’s because they are celebrating a successful hunt or they are socializing with another family. Because there were just the three orca present we assumed the orcas were celebrating full bellies. Notably during this encounter, we were missing a very prominent family member Rocky III (affectionately named Pizza Fin).

In the afternoon we went to visit our small family again. Instantly we realized something was wrong. Pizza fin was still missing, the orca were still breaching and most notably, they were still in the same spot. Transients orcas can easily travel over 100 miles a day and it is abnormal behaviour for them to stay in the same area all day long. We put the hydrophone in the water to get a better idea of what was going on and the orca were making what can only be described as wailing noises. While we can’t say for sure, our general assumption was that they were looking for Matriarch T37 Rocky III (Pizza Fin).

While we don’t know what happened after we left our orcas that night, I’m happy to report that on another tour a couple of days later the entire family of orca were back together!

During our afternoon trip, we were also lucky enough to encounter Anvil BCZ0410 our humpback who recently had some drama of her own when she had a close call with a speeding bathtub. This was because she was hanging out in an area that happened to be where Nanaimo’s annual bathtub races are held. Well, it sounds comical, these bathtubs are modified for some serious speed and Anvil was unfortunate enough to be feeding in the racing area that day. She popped up about 50 feet from one racer when she came up for air. Fortunately for both Anvil and the racer, there was no collision.

We also managed to find some other wildlife during the trip including one of our favourite spots: Stinky rocks, which had both Harbour Seals and Sea Lions hauled out on it and the other nearby rocks today. We also saw lots of birds, most notable being the local bald eagle family and the nesting cormorants along the Gabriola Island Bluffs!

July 23, 2023 - Where's Pizza fin?

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