It was a lovely April morning as we left Nanaimo. It’s not every day that we get reports of whales travelling only ten minutes away from our home base! We even had a staff member watching from shore, so we knew who the whales were before we even got there!

It was a short trip before we arrived with the whales. Another set of boats from Vancouver had found them before we did, but all the vessels in the area share reports and locations of the whales! The ocean is a big place to search on your own, so working together is very important! These boats let us know that the whales were doing extra long dives times, but nearly as soon as we arrived, things kicked off. The whales went into hunting mode! It was the T049As (-A1 and A2) which means these 5 whales were working together to take down a little harbour seal:

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

It seemed like while we were watching them, they were grouped in two, with Nan and Neptune working together at first, with Nat keeping an eye on the two youngest. Since they were staying in the same area, all three whale-watching boats got to just sit there with their engines off and enjoy watching the whales. It seems like the seal took advantage of all the free cover to try and shake the whales off, as the whales started frantically surfacing around one of the Vancouver Boats, trying to flush the seal away from there!

It can be beneficial for the seals to do this, especially when the boats are already shut down, since it will remove one the directions that the whale can attack from. Today this method wasn’t successful though, as we watched the whales grab the seal and push it closer to shore where more frantic surfacing happened, followed by porpoising, tail slaps, and finally a bloody wave showing that the seal finally lost this battle.

This means that there are some slightly gory photos included below for anyone not wanting to see it, we will give a warning above the photo with blood.

Given that we only spend an hour with the whales, after their hunt was over, as was our time with them, so we turned and headed north, leaving these whales swimming south after their meal.

Our next stop was on the other side of Valdes Island, on a small group of rocks that we call “Sticky Rocks” given that it’s inhabitants tend to stink up the place! Today was no exception, as the hundreds of Sea Lions carried on fighting amongst each other, their fish breath and poop smell wafting in our direction as we positioned downwind of them. It wasn’t just the Steller Sea Lions that we saw here, we also saw both Adult and Juvenile Bald Eagles and a River Otter! This little river otter has been known to show up on these rocks once in a while, but it was Naturalist Val’s first time seeing it here! Very exciting!

Our next stop was to see the Harbour Seals hanging out on the rocks just to the North, at the Flat Top Islands. These adorable little rock sausages watched us with curiosity as we drifted nearby, getting to enjoy some silence here compared to the Sea Lions we had just left.

While watching the seals the captain pointed out another critter nearby, a Great Blue Heron! They were trying to fish along the shoreline, although we didn’t see them being successful! Maybe not such a “Great” Great Blue Heron after all!

We continued along Gabriola Island, rounding the north end and getting a quick look at the Entrance Island Lighthouse, before stopping at the Gabriola Bluffs to see the Cormorants that are nesting there! It was a beautiful end to this amazing trip, sitting with the towering sandstone cliffs overhead.

All of the photos taken today by Naturalist Val Watson are included below for you to enjoy!