August 12, 2023 - T071Bs with friends and Humpbacks too!

Today was a fantastic morning spent on the Salish Sea. We headed out into the Strait of Georgia to see what wonderful wildlife would be in store for us today. It wasn’t long before our semi-covered boat spotted a blow in the distance! This turned out to be a humpback whale Sherwina (BCY0961)! Sherwina was spending a bit of time resting at the surface before she continued bulking up by eating a ton (literally) of food each day! She wasn’t lifting her tail between each time we saw her at the surface, which is a good sign that she isn’t going very deep. If she was diving down to where the majority of the food is, she would lift that tail much higher to help drive her deeper into the water.

While Kula was watching Sherwina, the other boats were heading in that direction until they got word of orca! Since Sherwina was being a bit sleepy they decided to head right there. Lucky for us here in the Salish Sea all the companies work together to share sightings! Sometimes it’s us that find the whales, and sometimes on days like this, we hear about them thanks to other companies. This helps more visitors to be able to enjoy the whales more often! So we headed over towards the Sunshine Coast where we found a group of 6 orca travelling together. Those orca were travelling south very close to shore, making getting an ID shot a little difficult. Luckily on the bigger screen on the computer later on we were able to figure out that it was the T071Bs travelling with the T124Ds! The whales present today were:

T071B Hood (2000)
T071B1 Zengo (2013)
T071B2 Tasli (2018)

T124D Field (1996)
T124D1 Salish II (2014)
T124D3 (2022)

It can be a bit challenging figuring out exactly who each whale is who is present, especially when they are spread out like the transient orca like to do. The whales also have been mixing up their pods lately! This means that different pods have been travelling together, and switching who they travel with every few days sometimes. We also used to say that within the matrilines there aren’t many changes other than when females branch out to form their own pods, but that also seems to be changing. We have young whales who are travelling on their own, mixing pods, and making things just extra challenging! That’s why photos become so important. Today we know that we had transient orca since T071B1 Zengo has a very distinct notch off the tip of their dorsal fin and we were able to then determine that the rest of their family was there, but as mentioned previously, the other two remained a mystery until we could pull up those photos on a larger screen to look for smaller scars and shapes to the saddle patch, dorsal fin, and saddle patch of the T124Ds.

It was amazing getting to see these two pods mixing while they travelled south.

Yet again, the semi-covered boat had eagle eyes and while the two open boats were watching the orca, they came across another couple of whales, this time a mother and calf pair. It was Strike (BCX1675), her 2023 calf! The young calf must have been happy and did a little breach before they continued travelling down the Strait. Luckily the naturalist onboard was quick with her camera and was able to catch this moment!

Our open vessel also got to see something even less common in these waters, a submarine! Just off the coast of Nanaimo, there is a Military Practice Zone where today they had a submarine in the mix! Before it dove below the surface the naturalist caught it on the camera. Pretty cool to see!

Other than the steel whale, we also got to see some Harbour Seals, Harbour Porpoises (no photos unfortunately), and even some Cormorants enjoying their time in the Salish Sea! All of these photos can be enjoyed below and were taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sherwina’s dorsal fin with Gabriola island in the background. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Strike with her 2023 calf in front of her. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Strikes calf breaching out of the water! Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Strike surfacing beside her calf. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T071B2 Tasli surfacing beside T071B Hood. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T071B2 Tasli surfacing beside mom T071B Hood. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T071B1 Zengo surfacing beside T071B Hood. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

One of the T071Bs breaking through the surface of the water. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T124D Field. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Another orca coming to the surface. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T071B Tasli and T071B Hood. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T124D Field surfacing with another close behind. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

T071B2 Tasli surfing the waves. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T124D Field and another. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T071B1 Zengo and another one just below the surface. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T071B2 Tasli. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T0124D Field! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T071B Hood behind her eldest T071B1 Zengo. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Submarine seen from one of our open boat. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Harbour Seals hauled out on seal rock. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Little baby seal heading into the water with mom. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Another mom and pup combo. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

A gull checking us out as we watched the seals. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Mom and pup now in the water. Photo by Carmen Murphy.

Cormorants drying themselves off in the sun. Photo by Carmen Murphy.