June 16, 2024 - Flying Orca and a Sleepy Humpback

It was a classic west coast day as we had our Semi-Covered Vessel Kula leave into the Strait of Georgia to start their search for whales. Although the sun was hiding behind the clouds, it made for great spotting conditions since we didn’t have to worry as much about glare!

When we are searching for wildlife, there is a few tricks to it. It helps to be constantly scanning around the boat in every direction, since the likihood of something showing up in the same spot you might be staring at for the last ten minutes is low. The human eye is well trained to pick up changes in the environment so usually it will catch your eye during a scan if a whale appears!

Today it was a humpback whale that caught our attention first. Although they never cooperated with us enough to show off their tail flukes, the usual ID feature, we think based on the dorsal fin that this whale was Harpy (BCZ0503)! Harpy is a young whale, born to Raptor in 2020. She has been returning to our waters ever since, so it’s always exciting to see her during a tour!

While spending time with Harpy, we got word from one of the Vancouver based boats that they had found orca not too far away, so we headed over there to see who it was! We immediately recognized one of the whales, thanks to his large dorsal fin and chunk missing from the top of their dorsal fin, as the oldest male in the Transient Orca population; Harbeson! He was travelling with the T036s today, meaning the following whales were present:

T036 Flapjack ♀ (≤1970)
T036B Tattertip ♀ (1998)
T036B1 Bhotia ♀ (2009)
T036B2 Greenfelder ♀ (2013)
T036B4 (2024)

T087 Harbeson ♂ (~1962)

During the majority of our encounter, these whales seemed to be in travel mode, spread out a bit and doing groups of surfaces to breathe before dipping below the surface for a longer dive. Then suddenly, one of the orca took to the skies!

Bhotia threw herself out of the water twice, doing what looked like an aggressive porpoising rather than a playful breach. It could be that the whales came across some food, like a fast porpoise along the way and gave chase, but if this was the case they didn’t seem to have any success. It was still a very impressive show of power and speed from this 15 year old orca!

We stayed with them for a while as they continued their travels, until it was time for our to find some other wildlife. We were close to a Sea Lion haul-out along the Sunshine Coast called the White Islets, so we headed over to see if there was still sea lions there. Both of the species of Sea Lion in BC aren’t here year round. They will travel either north or south to their breeding grounds, depending on their species. The ones we saw today were the Steller Sea Lions, who head north to Northern BC and Alaska to their rookeries.

Today they were enjoying their rest before the long journey, laying on the rocks in a particularly easy way. We left them to their napping and crossed the Strait, back to Nanaimo. It was a very exciting day with all the wildlife we were luck enough to find! All of the photos from the trip today were taken by the onboard Naturalist Aly Kohlman, and can be viewed below!

T036B4 trying to keep up with the adults!

T036B4 making some serious waves! Go baby go!

T036 Flapjack, T036B Tattertip, and T036B4.

Some of our Sea lions wanted to cuddle today.

Jilann LechnerJune 16, 2024WhalesComment