April 30, 2024 - A Mini T-party in Howe Sound!

It was a beautiful sunny day and we were planning to make the most of it! Our two vessels, Kula and Cascadia, left the Nanaimo Harbour and started the search for wildlife. One of the great things about whale watching in the PNW is all of the beautiful scenery that you get to take in as you travel along, as well as all the critters that call the Salish Sea home.

As our vessels left Nanaimo they headed out into the large body of water the separates Vancouver Island from the Mainland of BC, known as the Strait of Georgia. From here we could see the snowcapped Coastal Mountains towering on the horizon, as well as the coastlines of all the Southern Gulf islands stretching to the South. Thanks to an early find by one of our friends in Vancouver, we knew that there was a pod of Orca that had just entered into Howe Sound, and seemed like they were headed north.

We continued to cross the Strait, and headed towards those whales. Arriving on scene, we saw a spectacular sight; these whales must be hunting!

There was a ton of surface activity as they worked hard to hunt what seemed to the Naturalists to be an unfortunate harbour seal. Through the action we were able to identify the following whales as being present:

T023C Cindy/Freshwater ♀ (1990)
T023C3 Durban ♀ (2009)
T023C4 Bunzie (2013)
T023C5 (2018)
T023C6 (2023)

T124D Field ♀ (1996)
T124D1 Salish II (2014)
T124D3 (2022)

You’ll notice in this group that there are a lot of young whales present, a 6-year-old, 2-year-old, and a one-year-old. A lot of the times that there are younger whales in a group like this, the adults will take advantage of the opportunity to teach the younger whales how to hunt. Hunting is a very important part of an orca’s life, given that they need to consume about 500 pounds (227 kg) every day as adults. This means that each whale needs about 1.5 harbour seals daily! This means that unsuccessful hunts can be quite bad for a whale as it’s a big expenditure of energy without any gain afterwards. That’s why orca work so hard to teach their young the skills they will need to be successful on their own, especially the females. While male orca tend to stick with their mothers their whole lives, females will more commonly disperse, or leave their mom to start their own pod. This usually starts to happen when the females start producing their own calves, especially if their mother is still reproductive. The calves are reliant on mom’s milk for the first year or so of their lives, before solid food will start to get mixed in. They will still “help” with the hunt a bit, or more so be in the action observing, but they likely won’t share in the spoils until they are a bit older. This means that young T023C6 may not have been practicing yet, but the others looked like they were.

We saw all sorts of activity from this group while they practiced, spy hopping, tail slapping, pectoral fin slapping, and even some full body breaches! It was an amazing show of power by these apex predators, and it lasted for the whole hour that we were there watching them. We eventually had to peel ourselves away, since we limit our viewing time to one hour to help reduce our impact on the whales, and we started the search for other wildlife.

One boat’s search took them back across the Strait of Georgia over to Entrance Island where we saw some Sea Lions spending time on the rocks, enjoying the sunshine! The other vessel stopped in Howe Sound itself to see some Sea Lions on a small dock near Gambier Island. They were up to their usual shenanigans, some napping while others fight amongst themselves for the fun of it. It’s never a dull moment with these guys! We were lucky enough that it was both species of sea lion here today, the smaller California Sea Lions to the side while the larger Steller Sea Lions ruled the roost.

After the excitement of the Sea Lions, the quiet cuteness of the Harbour Seals was a relief! We saw a whole bunch of the little “rock sausages” also enjoying the sunshine on the rocks of Snake Island. We had one last stop before returning to Harbour, and that was at the Gabriola Bluffs for the Cormorants and Bald Eagles! The towering sandstone cliffs are impressive in themselves, but getting to see all of the different birds spending time there was an extra treat.

Finally we returned to the harbour thrilled with all of the wildlife that we got to witness today! Lucy Willis and Vanessa Vereschahen, the naturalists onboard our vessels today, got some amazing photos which you can view below!

A big tail slap! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T023C6 tailslapping beside one of the other whales! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T023C4 Bunzie. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T124D1 Salish II breaching. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T023C3 Durban excitedly breaching. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Coming in for a landing! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T023C3 Durban breached repeatedly today! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

In this photo you can tell that Durban is a female - just look for the little black ‘dash’ on her belly. That is one of her mammary slits! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T124D3 behind her mother T124D Field. Photo by Lucy Willis.

T023C3 Duban, T124D Field, and T124D3. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Little T023C6 cruising through the water. Photo by Lucy Willis.

There was a lot of action during this trip! Photo by Lucy Willis.

A whale photobombed our pretty landscape shot! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Snoozing on the docks. Photo by Lucy Willis.

A classic Seal side eye. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Look at those curly whiskers! Photo by Lucy Willis.

Someone was in the middle of a deep sleep. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A young Bald Eagle perched up on the rocks. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Cormorants displaying their beautiful iridescent plumage. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Sprucing up the home. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Cormorants are usually seen with fish or seaweed in their bills, but today this one had a piece of tree in its beak! Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A Bald Eagle sits on its nest. Photo by Lucy Willis.

Jilann LechnerApril 30, 2024Whales1 Comment