It was a moody West Coast day making the lighting perfect for photos! With all the Herring run action recently North of Nanaimo we decided to head that way! Not only is the herring run itself interesting, the scenery along the way is breathtaking as well.Although we did not spot a spawn on this tour we spent time with many interesting wildlife.

You might be asking yourself, are the orca also in the area to feed on the spawning herring? Here in BC the answer is simple, no! All of the ecotypes that we have here in BC are feeding on animals other than the herring, such as Salmon for the Northern and Southern Residents and other marine Mammals for the Bigg orca that we watch. Sometimes you will still see them in the same area as the spawn though, since their food sources will be hunting the large groups of spawning herring.

The Orca are well fed this time of year as the Harbour Seals, Sea Lions and Porpoise are abundant during the spawn. We could assume the T049As were hunting today when we spotted them near Ballenas Island as T049A Nan seemed to be surfacing very shallowly and taking small breaths with little to no blow. This could indicate that she was trying to sneak up on something. It can sometimes be difficult to know for sure what is happening under the water since the visibility is so low, but we sure like to speculate about it!

We do know that the Transient Orca are silent hunters, using ambush as an effective way to capture their prey. It has even been documented that the Orca sometimes make a large production of them leaving the area if their prey noticed them. While this is happening one Orca stays behind and waits until the prey has let its guard down and then strikes the now unsuspecting prey! Often the second attempt is successful!

It was a much simpler hunt attempt today though, no trying to trick the unlucky marine mammal that may have been in their sights. It was the T049As who we first saw today, a pod consisting of the following members:

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

After leaving these whales behind, we had heard about another whale that was travelling the nearby coastline with many sightings from shore. When we headed that way, the full grown fin of a one male orca was spotted. It was the very distinct

T049C Janet/ Neilson ♂ (1998)

This lone male can be distinguished by the two large notches on his dorsal fin, but you have to be careful! He has a look alike in the local Biggs population, T046C1 Tsunami! this means that after you see those big notches, you should be checking the saddle patch scaring to make sure it’s the right whale. Since Janet is a lone male and Tsunami typically travels with his pod still, the presence of other whales can also be a good indicator of where to start looking in the catalogue. Interestingly, as you might have noticed from the scientific numbers shown here, Janet is Nans brother! Although they didn’t get together today while we saw them, it could be that there is a family reunion in the future for these whales.

Janet was doing what we see most often out of the orca, travelling! He continued south in the Strait of Georgia, long after we left him behind.

All of the photos of the whales today (and all the other wildlife) were taken by the onboard marine naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen and can be enjoyed below!

March 20, 2024 - The T049As travelling together and T049C by himself

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