August 5, 2023, 10:30 - T037 travelling with the T002Cs, with T065A5 Indy nearby

On the morning of August 5th, we started the day off with a sighting report, Orca not too far away! So we decided to head in that direction and figure out who it was. We went out into the Strait of Georgia to the other side of Gabriola Island, heading south until we caught up with the whales just south of Thrasher Rock! Quickly our naturalists started clicking shots and used those to identify the whales. It was an interesting mix of whales. We had the T002Cs with an extra visitor, T037 Rocky! The whales seen were:

T002C Tasu (1989)
T002C1 Rocky (2002)
T002C3 Lucy (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)

T037 Rocky III (1979)

These whales were travelling close together when we first found them, and then they slowly split into multiple groups and spread out across about a mile or so! This is common foraging behaviour for our orca, since when they’re spread over a distance they are more likely to come across prey by one of the groups. If that happens they can quickly call out to the other members of the group and they can converge on the one area and help out with the hunt! During our time with them, they didn’t end up coming across anything, so we left them spread out still searching.

On the journey home, one of the vessels came across another orca travelling solo nearby:

T065A5 Indy (2014)

Indy has been extra unpredictable this year, travelling alone and being sporadic when we do see him. This was also the case today since he was zigzagging all over the place, doing variable dive times, and being generally hard to track. It’s nice to see him and make sure he is still doing well! After a short while with Indy, we continued on our way, heading inside the Southern Gulf islands to get some amazing views of other wildlife such as Seals, Bald Eagles, and even a lovely Great Blue Heron that was posing near the seal haul-out. What an amazing day spent with our orca and other wildlife!

Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C Tasu, T002C5 Zippy. Photo by Val Watson.

T002C3 Lucy (left), T002C5 Zippy and T002C Tasu. Photo by Val Watson.

Steller Sea Lions on Stinky Rock. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Grouchy sea lions. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

All sorts of drama. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

A sleepy rock sausage. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

A handsome Harbour Seal with a lovely seaweed moustache. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

A committee of Turkey Vultures. Photo by Val Watson.

Double-Crested Cormorants. Photo by Val Watson.

One of the Canadian Coast Guard’s Hovercraft vessels. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Jilann LechnerAugust 5, 2023WhalesComment