Leaving the harbour for our afternoon tour we had a report we were heading towards: orca travelling in Howe Sound! We started the journey across the Strait of Georgia towards this report but were stopped when we noticed a big blow not too far away, it was a humpback whale! While not able to figure out who this whale was when we were on the water, some fluke matching after the fact with the photos we got provided an answer; it was KEZ0010 Allusion! This whale hasn’t been spotted very often, in fact, it only has one previous sighting by us which was provided by Keta Coastal Conservation to get them a spot in the catalogue. Although their fluke has changed a lot from then to now, distinct scarring tells us this is the same animal. After watching Allusion for one or two surfaces, we continued to Howe Sound.

Here we were greeted with familiar fins, it was the T137s! This pod contains one of our favourite whales: T137A Jack! All the other members are great too, which would be:

T137 Loon (~1984)
T137A Jack (2002)
T137B Tempest (2006)
T137D Wright (2012)

Today the T137s were spending their time travelling through Howe Sound, working their way through the islands and narrow channels that make this area so beautiful to watch whales in. Sometimes while in the area they can snack on one of the many smaller marine mammals that call this area home, such as the harbour seals, sea lions, or sometimes even smaller cetaceans like porpoises! Today it was an unlucky Harbour Seal that ended up on the menu, as we saw the large male Jack travelling with one in his mouth!

This family are very proficient hunters, being able to find, catch, and eat their prey sometimes within only a few minutes. Sometimes with orca, they will play with their food more, or stun them to let younger whales get some practice time in, but with the youngest whale in this group being 11 years old, they usually don’t play much with their food.

After spending our time with the T137s, we started the trip back across to Nanaimo, and were once again stopped by a humpback whale sighting! This time it was Zigzag (BCX1193), her 2023 calf. These two were seen by only one of our vessels. They weren’t up to much, just travelling close to the surface, not showing off their tails much with any deep dives, but luckily ZigZag is easy to ID with her distinct dorsal fin shape.

All of the photos from the afternoon by our onboard naturalists Aly Kohlman, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereschahen of all the whales and other wildlife encountered can be viewed below!

August 5, 2023, 3:30 - T137s travelling in Howe Sound, Zigzag and calf, and Allusion!

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