The winds were light and the sun was shining as we left Nanaimo on our Open Boat Cascadia to see what the Salish Sea had in store for us today. We started the adventure by entering into the Strait of Georgia and heading north. Up north there was a herring spawn so we made a quick stop by to take a look at that before continuing the search for whales.

Our search took us on a loop up to around Nanoose Bay, before we got word of a pod of orca down south, within the Southern Gulf Islands, so we decided to turn around and head in that direction instead. We left the Strait of Georgia behind and headed into the more protected waters of the islands. On a day like this where there isn’t wind anyways, the inside waters are so calm and smooth that they start to look like a mirror. As our vessel swiftly cut through the water’s surface you would hardly have known that you were on a boat if your eyes were closed.

It didn’t take us long to find what we were looking for, the large, black dorsal fins of the orca along with the spray of their blows caught the eye of the captain as they travelled. As we slowed and approached closer, it was easy to tell which group we had here; it was the T049As! This group of 6 is well known by us, and admittedly a company favourite. The members of the pod are:

T049A Nan ♀ (1986)
T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)
T049A3 Nat ♂ (2011)
T049A4 Neptune ♂ (2014)
T049A5 Nebula ♀ (2017)
T049A6 Charlie II (2022)

Nearly all of the T049As have some sort of easily identifiable feature that makes them unique. Noah is arguably the easiest, with his 6-foot-tall dorsal fin, distinct notch, and the bad habit of ignoring the whale-watching distance regulations. He often surprises boats by popping up closer than the 200m watching distance that our vessels have. When this happens our boats have to shut down and wait for Noah to get the appropriate distance away again. Our theory is that he likes to hear surprised screams from those onboard, as it’s not just whale-watching vessels we’ve seen him acting this way around, it also happened in the Nanaimo harbour with small training sailboats in this encounter.

Although he doesn’t have any notches or bad habits, Nat is also easy to ID with his unique dorsal fin shape and size, as he is in the process of sprouting. Sprouting is what male orca go through during puberty! When they are young, it’s very hard to see a difference between male and female orca, but as they start to sexually mature, they develop the secondary sex characteristics that set male orca apart. This is most noticeable in the large dorsal fin that develops, getting taller and straighter until they are fully grown around 20 years old. The other fins (like the pectoral fins and tail flukes) also are proportionally larger in adult males than in adult females. In general, male orcas get larger than females do all around. Since Nat is only 13 years old he has a few years before we will get to see what his full adult dorsal fin will be like, which we can’t wait for!

Next up is the matriarch of the group, 37-year-old Nan. Although smaller than her older sons, she is the one in charge of the group. She can be IDed by her series of smaller notches at the base of her dorsal fin. She is a bit of a super mom, with all 6 of her offspring surviving thus far, including T049A2 Jude who no longer travels with the rest of the pod. Noah also is known to ditch the rest of his family, although we were happy he was there today!

Neptune and Nebula don’t necessarily have a very obvious distinguishing feature, but scarring on their saddle patches and dorsal fin shape can help tell those two apart.

The final, and cutest, member of the pod to talk about is Charlie II. When they were first born they were super beat up. Our first sighting of this little whale was on March 6th, 2022 and there were open wounds on their dorsal fin as well as on other parts of their body. We were unsure if this little whale would make it, but supermom Nan showed her nurturing nature! Throughout 2022 we watched Charlie II heal and keep an extra excited nature to them as they would often surface with more enthusiasm than the rest of the pod, throwing a third of their body out of the surface each time. With these full looks at this unique orcas face something else became apparent, this whale has an underbite! If you get the angle just right you can see they have a shorter than normal rostrum and sometimes you can even see their little teeth sticking out! All of the unique features and amazing resilience that Charlie II shows are why we love them so much!

After spending time with this amazing group of whales we had one more stop to make, and that was with the Pinnipeds, aka the seals and sea lions. We were lucky that while we were here watching the Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals, a bald eagle also made an appearance.

All of the photos from the tour today were captured by the onboard Marine Naturalist, Aly Kohlman, and can be viewed below!