February 21, 2024 - Northern Residents in Howe Sound

It was a foggy and rainy day when we left Nanaimo on February 21st in search of whales, but we didn’t let that cloud our judgement, we were determined to have a great time!

Over the last little while we had heard of visitors from the Northern Residents who were spending time down in our range, across the Strait of Georgia in Howe Sound, so we decided to try our luck and headed in that direction. It was a beautiful day to make this journey, as the seas were plat calm as our vessel flew over the surface. We even were able to get a glimpse of a shy Harbour Porpoise along the way!

It didn’t take us long to enter the mouth of Howe Sound, a breathtaking glacial Fjord. The steep rocky shoreline and Snowy mountain peaks were nicely framed by the low clouds today as we started the search for the whales. Soon we spotted them, the big black dorsal fins of the orca accompanied by the bursts of spray as they came to the surface and exhaled.

The Northern Residents have a different social structure than the Biggs orca that we usually watch. They have Clans which are arranged by the different Dialects, each pod consists of different Matrilines, which are the close-knit family groups. Today the A5 pod was travelling in Howe Sound. The A5s are the following whales:

A23s

A43 Ripple ♀ (1981)
A69 Midsummer ♀ (1997)
A95 Fern ♂ (2009)
A109 Eliot ♀ (2014)
A126 Ne’Nawk (2021)
A60 Fife ♂ (1992)

A25s

A61 Surge ♂ (1994)
A85 Cordero ♀ (2005)
A121 Twilight ♂ (2019)

A42s

A42 Sonora/Holly/Uma ♀ (1980)
A79 Current ♀ (2004)
A119 Venture ♀ (2018)
A88 Cameleon ♀ (2008)
A103 Albion (2013)
A114 Ashlar (2017)

Thanks to the World Wide Killer Whale Database for nickname information

Today though, we only got to spend time with the A23s and A25s as the A42s were further north than we were able to make it.

Although we’ve seen the A42s before, sometimes called The Wanderers, it was our first time with the rest of the A5 pod. The Northern Residents have a unique behaviour known as beach rubbing, where they find a nice pebbly beach and rub on it, letting the rocks give them a massage as they fall over their skin. One of the theories as to why the A42s will make the trip to the Sunshine Coast each year is that there is a rubbing beach there.

We also wonder if a reason could be that as the Northern Resident Population continues to grow, they are looking to expand their range into new areas, and after successful reconnaissance trips by the A42s, the rest of the pod also decided to come and check out the area.

We can speculate all we want about the reasons the whales might be visiting here, but at the end of the day, more research and time are needed to provide insight into the behaviours of these whales. Lucky for us, we shared some of our time watching these whales with a research vessel that will hopefully help answer some of these important questions.

What we do know about these animals is that over time they’ve faced hardships. The A5 pod was captured back in 1969 in Pender Harbour, and it’s thought all of the calves were captured and the adults released. These calves were sold and ended up in captivity. The most notable of these whales is A16 Corky II/Ihe-Me'na since she is still held in Sea World San Diego. She was 5 when her pod was captured and has spent the last 55 years in captivity.

Three of the 15 whales that we saw today three have been hit by boats and some show a lot of damage from it. You can see the huge scar that A109 has just behind their dorsal fin. These strikes were all from separate encounters, A60 was stuck in 2003, A95 in 2015, and A109 in 2018. This pod was also involved in an incident in 2022 where a dive boat was breaking regulations and harassing the whales, as described in THIS article.

Thankfully, we got to observe these beautiful animals in their natural habitat, keeping our distance and travelling parallel with them to reduce our impact. They all were playing with each other, travelling, and overall seemed to be happy and healthy. But, their history is an important reminder to always be alert on the water and know the regulations surrounding watching all whales in BC or wherever you are from.

After spending our hour with these animals travelling through the waters of Howe Sound, we left them to their day and started the journey back across the Strait of Georgia. Before returning to Nanaimo we made one final stop near the Harmac Pulp Mill, where we saw a haul-out of California Sea Lions on the log booms.

The Sea Lions are usually interesting to watch, as there are lots of them there, and they don’t respect each other’s personal space. This often leads to funny looks, sounds, and sometimes fighting among the animals. Today we got one final reminder of the potential impact that humans have on the environment, as one of the Sea Lion has evidence of past entanglement. It seems to be just a deep scar that has healed, but we passed along the information and photos to DFO so the experts could analyze it.

We always count ourselves lucky to be able to observe such amazing wildlife that also call the Salish Sea home, but today’s encounter with the Northern Residents was something special.

Today the photos were taken by the onboard naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen, as well as a ride-along naturalist Aly Kohlman.

A Bald Eagle preparing for Flight! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

And take-off! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A126 Ne’nawk presumable surfacing beside mother, A69 Midsummer. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Surge letting out a big blow on his exhale! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A great look at A61 Surge’s Saddle patch. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A69 Midsummer surfacing with a big exhale! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A126 Ne’nawk (behind) surfacing beside A69 Midsummer. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Surge surfacing in the rain. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Look at the unique shape to A61 Surge’s eye patch! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

One of the A5s does a small back dive while the bent tip to A61 Surge’s dorsal fin dips below the water. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The back dive continues! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A95 Fern surfacing in the rain. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The water was so calm, you can see the little wake that T95 Fern leaves behind. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Surge surfaces behind A60 Fife. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Surge surprised the boat by surfacing too close for our large lens to capture! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A95 Fern swimming away from us. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A Bald Eagle kept a watchful eye on both us and the whales. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A60 Fife surfaces quickly through the water. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A great look at A60 Fife. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

There’s nothing quite like the scenery of watching orca in Howe Sound! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A126 Ne'nawk surfacing in the rain. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A look at the scar on A109 Eliot. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A126 Ne’nawk surfacing beside mom, A69 midsummer. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Midsummer and A126 Ne’nawk surfacing together. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A61 Midsummer and A126 Ne’nawk prepare to go for a longer dive. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A Steller Sea Lion at Harmac. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

This big male Steller Sea Lion was hanging out with the California Sea Lions at Harmac. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The sea lions like spending time on the log booms before the logs get loaded onto ships. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A beautiful photo of the crossing over to Howe Sound. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.