Another sunny day, perfect to head out into the Salish Sea and see what we can spot! On our search for whales, we stumbled upon one of our favorite little mammals, the Harbour Seal! We have so many affectionate nicknames for these seals: rock sausages, water puppies, and rock potatoes are just a few. Such cuties! The Orca however, love them for a different reason. These little guys are the main food source for our Transient Orca, and we are happy to say they are abundant! It is estimated around 50,000 Harbour seals call the Salish Sea home, with around 250,000 residing in the Pacific Northwest. With such a bountiful prey source readily available, the Transients are feeding well, able to find the 300 pounds of food per day each Orca requires. The Harbour seals weigh around 150 pounds, with a few of the larger ones topping out around 300 pounds. That means that each orca needs to consume roughly 2 harbour seals per day! We know they are charming and cute, but we have to remember that the Orca need to fill their bellies to continue to thrive! Our mantra when watching wildlife is there is no good, no bad, just nature.

Ultimately, we were not the only ones to find the Harbour Seals today. Our search for whales came to an end when we spotted splashing in the distance. It was a hunt! We could see two towering dorsal fins along with a little shorter one among the commotion. The Orca we found today were:

T101 Reef ♀ (≤1969)
T101A Rush ♂ (1993)
T101B Lagoon ♂ (1997)

These two big boys T101A Rush and T101B Lagoon travel with their mother T101 Reef, and although Reef is much smaller than her sons it is she who runs the show! She is the matriarch of this pod, and these boys will stay by their mothers’ side their entire lives. Today we witnessed a successful hunt and got to see a lot of action at the surface, including prey sharing among the pod! Most of the time when we see a hunt unfold, we do not see much as most of it happens under the water. Today was a bit of an exception! We knew the hunt had been rewarding as we watched the Gulls and Bald Eagles move in to take advantage of the Orcas’ hard work and grab some leftovers for themselves. We not only got to see tail slapping and aggressive surfacing, but we also got to see them eating, and even surfacing with intestines on their fins. The photos below are incredible, but graphic, so just a warning! The Orca share their prey with their families and with pure excitement we saw them shaking the seal and breaking off pieces to go around. Momma Reef feeds her boys just like human mothers do!

After our mesmerizing encounter with the T101s, our time was up and we had more to see! We came across the largest Sea Lion species in the world, our Stellers! These huge Sea Lions are also a prey source for the Orca, but they are a much bigger than the Harbour Seals, with males reaching weights of 2800 pounds. With a lot more size to them, they also put up more of a fight, resulting in significant scarring on the Transient Orca. you can see great examples of this scarring on the dorsals in the photos below!

We made one more stop before returning to the dock, going to check on our feathered friends at the Gabriola Bluffs! A pair of Bald Eagles we call Bonnie and Clyde were hanging around their nest as usual, but we still haven’t seen babies. We spent some time watching our Cormorants busy bringing nesting material to the Bluffs as the Turkey Vultures soared overhead. Finally, just as we were ready to head back, our Naturalist spotted something in the trees! Could it be? It was! A Peregrine Falcon! These Falcons have been nesting at the Bluffs for several seasons now, I think it’s safe to say they are back!

Enjoy photos from the tour taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Lucy Willis below. Discretion is advised, some are a bit gory!