February 12, 2024 - A travelling T-party with T087, the T100Bs, T100E and the T124As
The sun was shining and the winds dying down a our Semi-Covered vessel, Kula, left the dock on the morning of February 12th. We ended up heading south on our adventure, into the Southern Gulf Islands by way of Dodd Narrows. It was a long search today, covering nearly 100 miles in our journey.
We started by heading south in Stuart Channel, looping through Pylades Channel, and then stopping quickly to view some Harbour Seals before continuing south in Trincomali Channel. While it was beutiful scenery along the way, so far no whales. We made it all the way to the Southern end of Galiano Island before making another wildlife stop, this time for a haul-out of Sea Lions. These were primarily Steller Sea Lions, but there turned out to be a couple of California Sea Lion in the mix as well we discovered going through our photos back at the office later. While enjoying the sight of the Sea Lions sunning themselves and playing around in the water we saw something concerning; one of the sea lions had a rope or piece of line wrapped around its neck, seeming to be cutting into it’s blubber layer. We were able to send off photos of this sea lion to the marine mammal entanglement team right away with thanks to coordination with our office staff! Hopefully, they will be able to find this animal again and help it out.
There’s nothing that we can do during our tours for these animals, other than letting the experts know, so we continued our search. We ended up going south a bit more, until the southern tip of Saltspring Island. Looping through Satellite Channel we started the journey back north. We headed through the breathtaking, steep cliffs of Sansum Narrows and made it all the way to the northern tip of Saltspring Island again before we got report of a group of Orca travelling through Active Pass, back where we saw the Sea Lions! We decided it was worth the risk of being late or potentially not being able to locate them, and good thing we did, since we were greeted with a large group of whales all travelling quickly north together! Perfect!
After some initial photos and a bit of help from the research boat that soon joined us, we IDed the whales present as the following pods:
T087 ♂ Harbeson (~1962)
T100B ♀ Freya (1997)
T100B1 Seidr (2010)
T100B3 (2024)
T100E ♀ Tharaya (2009)
T124A ♀ Kittiwake (1984)
T124A1 ♀ Bonepartes (1996)
T124A4 ♀ Sabio (2010)
T124A4A (2021)
T124A6 ♂ Kasuun (2016)
T124A7 ♀ (2021)
It seemed like these whales were on a mission, they were travelling quite fast and very close together, with only Harbeson trailing behind the larger group of females and younger whales. Later in the encounter, he did end up catching up and travelling more closely with them.
You might have noticed looking at the birth years in brackets above, that there are a lot of young whales in this group! Most notably, the 2024 calf in the T100Bs. This calf stole the show, since it was so tiny compared to the others and was still looking very orange. The other 2021 calves would be nearly fully black and white since they tend to only have the orange hue for the first year or two of their lives.
We were able to spend our hour with the whales as they led us back north through Trincomali Channel and then it was time to leave them behind to continue on with their day, and we with ours as well. It was already turning into a long trip with the late report, so we headed right back to the dock, soaking in the sunset colours that started to form as we travelled.
It was an absolutely amazing day and a good reminder that it’s not always easy to find the whales, and sometimes it takes a little longer than expected. The photos included below were taken by the Marine Naturalist onboard Vanessa Vereschahen, as well as crew ridealong Val Watson. Please enjoy!
Harbour Seals hauled out in the sunshine. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
A Harbour Seal checking us out from the water. Photo by Val Watson.
Now that’s one very photogenic seal! Photo by Val Watson.
A Bald Eagle keeping a watchful eye over the Sea Lion haul out near Active Pass. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
Steller Sea Lions involved in a cuddle puddle. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
These three big males were very impressive to look at. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T100E Tharaya, T124A Kittiwake, T124A7, and T124A6 Kasuun surfacing together. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A4 Sabio surfacing in the waves. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A Kittiwake surfacing in front of T124A1 Bonepartes. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T100B Freya with her new calf, T100B3, and T124A Kittiwake. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A4 Sabio, T124A1 Bonepartes, T100B Freya, and T124A7. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T087 Harbeson spending time alone, close to the larger group. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
Cormorants taking advantage of the buoy. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A4 Sabio preparing to go for a longer dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A Kittiwake behind her first daughter, T124A1 Bonepartes. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T124A Kittiwake with T124A7. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T100B Freya with the brand new calf T100B3. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.
T100E Tharaya, T124A Kittiwake, and T124A7 surfacing close together. Photo by Val Watson.
The brand new baby T100B3 between the T100B and T100B1. Photo by Val Watson.
Another look at the baby. Photo by Val Watson.
T100B1 Seidr, T100B Freya, and T100B3. Photo by Val Watson.
T087 Harbeson. Photo by Val Watson.
T100B Freya and her new baby! Photo by Val Watson.
A great look at T100B3 travelling beside it’s mom, T100B Freya and another just breaking the surface. Photo by Val Watson.
Family Photo featuring the new baby. Photo by Val Watson.
T100B Freya, T100E Tharaya, T124A7, T124A Kittiwake, and T124A6 surfacing together. Photo by Val Watson.
T124A Kittiwake surfacing with T124A7. Photo by Val Watson..
T100B Freya surfacing with her youngest calf, T100B3. Photo by Val Watson.
A final look at the oldest male in the Transient Orca population; T087 Harbeson. Photo by Val Watson.