Most of the time when we head out into the Salish Sea to start our search, we don’t really know where we are looking. The whales, both humpback and orca, are constantly on the move. Since our whales are free of trackers and tags, we don’t know when or where they might pop up. Today though, we started with a shore based report right close to home. A pod of orca was reported from shore near the Duke Point Ferry Terminal, about 2 minutes outside of the Harbour. Of course, we headed that way to see if we could find them. It didn’t take long before an excited shout came from the boat, there were the whales! It was four whales that we saw, and they were moving quite slowly, spending time under the surface near Jack Point, likely trying to sneak up on the many Sea Lions that were fishing in the area. We quickly grabbed our camera and snaped some photos, confirming these to be the T065Bs!

T065B Chunk ♀ (1993)
T065B1 Birdsall ♂ (2011)
T065B2 Nettle ♂ (2019)
T065B3 (2023)

These whales stayed basically in the same spot for the majority of our time with them, moving slightly in and out of the shoreline hoping for one of the Sea Lions to let their guard down so they could strike! They didn’t seem to have much success while we were watching them, but it was still very interesting watching these ambush predators at work. They moved quickly at the surface at one point, looking like they might enter the Nanaimo Harbour, before dipping back below the surface and reappearing closer to Jack Point. We left them to it at this point, continuing our search into the Strait to see what else we might find. According to shore-based reports, this pod of whales stayed in this same spot for hours, until finally continuing their travels at around 4:00 pm. It’s unusual to see a pod of whales sticking in one spot for so long. While we think it was likely due to the high concentrations of potential food there, we will never really know what caused the stall in these orca’s travels!

Heading into the calm waters of the Strait we soon spotted the larger, bushier blow of a humpback whale in the distance. This humpback turned out to be Kappa (BCX0158) travelling solo east of Gabriola Island. She appeared to be feeding in the area, doing long dives between 5-8 minutes before resurfacing to catch her breath. She is likely after the high abundance of krill and schooling fish that make the Salish Sea such a great spot for these whales. Each time she dove, she lifted her tail high out of the water, showing off the beautiful black underside that was covered in white scars. These scars and patterns are how we ID the humpbacks. Kappa is named for one scar on her left fluke which resembles a “k”. Can you spot it in the photos?

We eventually left Kappa to her feeding and continued searching south until we spotted more blows on the horizon. The first whale from this group we spotted was Graphite (BCX2077), a 5-year-old male who seemed to be enjoying himself as he travelled toward the shoreline of Galiano Island where there were more spouts. Usually when the humpbacks are travelling, we see just their backs and tails lifting from the water, a gentle motion as they cut through the waves. Today, Graphite was adding something special to his surfaces. We were treated to him lifting his rostrum out of the water with nearly every surface, with strange patterns to his exhales, and an adorable tail flick with nearly every dive! With the beautiful Mt. Baker as a backdrop, it was both beautiful and fascinating watching him. Eventually, our curiosity got the best of us, and we outpaced the playful Graphite to see who the other blows in the distance belonged to.

It was a pair of humpbacks this time, both with unique dorsal fins that allowed us to ID them before they even showed off their tails. It was Sherwina (BCY0961) and Uluka (BCX1702) travelling together! They also seemed to be acting a bit more excited than a typical humpback, travelling in very close quarters to each other, and giving a few tail flicks and swishes as we watched. It was another beautiful encounter! As the sun started to sink toward the mountains, we knew our time with the humpbacks was up, and we started the journey home, leaving these playful animals behind.

Our journey home took us through the Southern Gulf Islands, the calm waters of Trincomali Channel turned to Stuart Channel and led us north towards Nanaimo. We passed through the narrow passageway between Mudge Island and Joan Point on Vancouver Island known as Dodd Narrows, and were thrilled to watch as some Sea Lions broke the water, fighting the currents and looking for fish along the way. This led us to our next stop at the Harmac Pulp Mill log booms, where hundreds of sea lions were resting on the logs. During the fall and winter, these logs will be teeming with both the California Sea Lions and Steller Sea Lions, taking a break from fishing in the nearby waters. The log booms are great places to rest since their buoyancy allows them to rise and fall with the tides providing all-day protection from the Transient Orca who might try and make a meal of them. They are usually quite entertaining to watch, the barking from the California Sea Lions fighting amongst each other is an iconic sound that fall is here for any West Coaster.

We continued from here back to Nanaimo, concluding what turned out to be an amazing day for whale watching. Getting to start the tour with the T065Bs was very lucky, and even more so to find the 4 humpback whales spending time in the Strait. We have photos of all of these wildlife encounters available for you to view below, thanks to onboard Marina Naturalist Vanessa Vereschehen!

November 5, 2024 - Orca spending time in Nanaimo, and Humpbacks in the Strait

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