After spending some time near the Gulf Islands in the morning, our crew decided to switch it up and head North to see who we could find. Just north of Lantzville, we found the very excited T023s! The members of this pod include:

T023 Janice (<1964)
T023D Axel (1993)
T023D4 Sixx (2015)
T023D5 (2019)

We got some pretty good activity from these guys! They were right in the middle of a hunt and were celebrating accordingly. We got some good tail slapping from these guys, as well as some clear hunting behaviours. Our Transients are mammal eaters only, so it was likely they were hunting the Harbour Seals nearby, although they often go after the Harbour Porpoise and Sea Lions as well. The Orca are fierce predators, at the very top of the food chain here in the Salish Sea. And while the Harbour Seals and Sea Lions often scramble out of the water to escape the Orca, an interesting behaviour is beginning to emerge in the Transient Orca: Intentional beaching. A behaviour that is more commonly seen in the South American populations, intentional beaching involves the animal running aground in hopes of scaring the prey, such as the Harbour Seals, into the water where the rest of the pod lay waiting. This ritual, which is commonly seen in the Patagonia whale population has been seen, although rarely, in the Biggs populations as well. The best spot for an orca to employ this technique is sloped rocky outcrops where they can easily dislodge themselves back into the deeper water, which isn’t as common in these waters, but has been witnessed in Washington state. Another reason these impressive cetaceans are at the top of the food chain!

After watching them hunt for awhile, we left the orca to go check out the Humpbacks our other boat found nearby. We soon found BCX1856 Honu and a newer whale to us this year, MMX0355. Because they are a newer animal to the region, they don’t have their official BC ID number, so this is a temporary number assigned to help identify until something more permanent is given. While we primarily ID our Humpbacks through the distinctive fluke pattern on the underside of their tail, we can also look at the dorsal to ID. Hong is one of these whales for us, as they have a unique white scar on the top right side of their dorsal. However, upon a closer look, we noticed something interesting; Honu’s dorsal has changed! Sometime in the last year, a rather notice chunk has been taken out of Honu’s dorsal, as seen in the photos below.

See the difference?

Taking photos of the animals we encounter on tour is not only a great way to ID and create a lasting moment for guests, but is vitally important in monitoring our local species here in the Salish Sea. Because we document so extensively, we can usually pinpoint timelines of important events such as injuries, accidents, stranding, births and deaths, and pass on this information to various conservation groups, or to DFO when appropriate. It also ensures our animal identification catalogues are up to date, as accidents may drastically alter the characteristics of our species.

We stayed with our two humpbacks as they were feeding on the local krill and plankton, but once our time was up, we left them to their meals and continued on our way. We finished off the day checking out the Harbour seals and they lounged on the rocks, and visited the Gabriola bluffs to see the impressive Cormorant colony that nests in the steep cliffside. It’s a lovely way to end the day, as the cliffs look beautiful in the waning daylight.

Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Vanessa Vereschahen.