We had a wonderful afternoon tour, with not only Orca and Humpbacks but also plenty of other species! Before we even left the dock we already spotted our first aquatic species of the day, some little River otters. A lot of people mistake river otters for sea otters, and rightfully so when you see them hanging out here in the harbour! Unfortunately, the Sea Otter has been locally extirpated here in the Nanaimo area, so if you see an otter, it’s a river otter! An easy way to tell the difference between the two species is the shape of their tail. River otter tails are long and pointy, whereas Sea otter tails are flat and rounded similar to a beaver tail. River otters spend a lot of time on land and will make their primary dens on land as well. Sea otters on the other hand, spend most of their lives in the water and will give birth at sea. Their webbed feet aren’t adapted to moving efficiently on land, so they stick to an aquatic environment!

After admiring our furry friends, we headed out past Gabriola to the. Georgia Strait in search of humpbacks, where we had some good luck! We saw 3 different humpbacks today. The first whale was CRC-21677. This whale is new to us this year - so new in fact that it does not have a BC ID designation yet. When whales in BC receive their ID numbers, they are also assigned a prefix associated with that number- either w BCX, BCY or BCZ. The designation is based on the amount of white that is on the ventral (bottom) side of their fluke. Because CRC-21677 has a fluke with less than 20% white, this will be a BCX whale. Eventually, they will also receive a nickname. What would you name this whale?

We later lucked out and saw 2 more humpbacks who already have their designations and IDs, Ghost (BCX1333) and Prowler (BCX1660). Ghost is a known female who was first spotted in 2009. She comes to us from the Hawaii population and has brought three claves back to us from the warmer breeding grounds! Her newest calf, Spectre arrived last year and was spotted quite a few times last summer. This year, Ghost arrived empty-finned, which is very expected, as Humpback calves only spend one year with their moms. Fingers crossed we see little Spectre soon, a sign they made the long journey from Hawaii for the first time!

The luck didn’t run out there. When we got word of an Orca pod just across the Strait, we knew we had a double species day on our hands. We headed just SE of Gibsons where we found a tiny, but mighty little family, the T101’s!

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

The T101’s are a favourite in our area. Not only are they seen at different times of the year here, but there are 2 large impressive males in this family. Look at the size of those dorsals! At 31 and 27 years old, these boys are well-established males and are fully grown. While the boys may look impressive, it’s always a good idea to remember that females rule the Orca world. Orca are matriarchal and while Reef may be much smaller than her sons, she is still the boss! Males typically spend their entire lives with their mothers. Because we are watching the Bigg’s population we like to call them “Bigg Mama’s boys”.

We finished the day checking out the Stellar Sea Lions and Harbour Seals at a great local spot, and then went to visit the Cormorant colony at the Gabriola Bluffs! There was tons to see today!

All photos taken by naturalist Lucy Willis

June 13, 2024, 3:30pm - Bigg Mama's boys

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