June 17, 2024, 10:30am - Orca vs Humpback Brawl
Sometimes we get asked on our tours, do the humpbacks and orca get along? Well, most of the time, they don’t care much about each other and we will see them pass like two ships in the night, but other times, they don’t get along. Todays 10:30 am tour ended up seeing an interaction falling under the latter classification.
Since the Biggs orca will hunt other whales, and humpbacks are included on the list, the interactions can get negative quickly. In some cases, it will be the orca chasing the humpbacks, but in others the humpbacks seem to start the fight. Today it seemed like there was a little bit of both, with the orca chasing the humpbacks at some points, and the humpbacks chasing the orca right back!
Although the interaction was very chaotic, we we're able to ID the following whales being present:
Orca:
T034 Grace ♀ (≤ 1969)
T034A Pachamama ♀ (2007)
T034B Sonder ♀ (2017)
T036 Flapjack ♀ (≤1970)
T036B Tattertip ♀ (1998)
T036B1 Bhotia ♀ (2009)
T036B2 Greenfelder ♀ (2013)
T036B4 (2024)
T037 Rocky III / Pizza Fin ♀ (1979)
T037B Harald ♀ (1998)
T037B1 Lance ♂ (2012)
T037B3 ♀ (2022)
T087 Harbeson ♂ (~1962)
All of the humpbacks involved in this interaction were adults, so they weren’t actually at risk of predation from these orca as at this point they are too large and are able to fight back enough that the orca wouldn’t be successful. Even with the slightly smaller grey whales, the orca would only be successful if the larger grey was old or sick. This is pretty typical across the animal kingdom, when you hunt larger prey, you choose wisely, focusing your efforts on young, old, and sick animals.
Some of our humpbacks do show evidence of attempted predation from orca, like from when they were younger. One of the best examples of this was present today, Valiant! Valiant is known for the fact that she seems to hold a grudge against the orca, and is often seen interacting with them now that she is fully grown. It’s very possible that she intitiated the brawl today and recruited these other whales for assistance.
We don’t really know though, since we arrived well into the interaction already.
Nothing seemed to come of this either way, but it was super interesting watching the whales swimming so quickly and forming what looked like “teams” to deal with the other species. There was lots of surface action during our time spent with the animals, both from the orca and the humpbacks, with tails swishing at the surface, tail slips, and pectoral slapping happening, and like even more that we couldn’t see going on under the water! It was a very exciting thing to watch, but we limit the amount of time that we spend with the whales to help minimize our impact on their behaviour, so we ended up leaving these whales to their brawl.
We ended up checking the Halibut Bank Buoy and were rewarded with a great look at some Steller Sea Lions that were using the buoy as their personal hotel, napping with their fins lazily hanging over the side. It’s a great place for them since there is likely a smorgasbord of food waiting for them below the surface, if they decide they’re hungry.
We also stopped one last time at Snake Island, where there was some Harbour Seals enjoying the sunshine, as well as a couple of Bald Eagles seen soaring overhead and one on the island itself. It as a beautiful end to the trip!
All the photos taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Des Poier can be enjoyed below!
A river otter seen on the docks before the tour. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
She is so round! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Double fluke action! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
One of the orca seen today is missing a large chunk from their right pectoral fin! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T034 Grace. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T036 Flapjack. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Flukes up! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T037B1 Lance with the tip of T087 Harbeson’s dorsal visible. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T087 Harbseon and T037B1 Lance. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T087 Harbeson and T037B1 Lance swimming belly-to-belly. Photo by Des Poier.
T087 Harbeson tail slapping. Photo by Des Poier.
T036B1 Bhotia, T036B2 Greenfelder, and T036B4. Photo by Des Poier.
T034 Pachamama, T036B Tattertip, and T037 Rocky III/Pizzafin. Photo by Des Poier.
T036B Tattertip. Photo by Des Poier.
T037 Rocky III/Pizzafin and T036B2 Greenfelder. Photo by Des Poier.
T036B1 Bhotia. Photo by Des Poier.
Beak and Dandelion. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Valiant’s very distinct dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Valiant shows scarring from a previous orca attack. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Checkmate seems to have some changes to their dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Checkmate going down for a dive. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
One of the humpbacks nostrils. Photo by Des Poier.
Dandelion quickly going down. Photo by Des Poier.
Dandelion diving. Photo by Des Poier.
Arial. Photo by Des Poier.
Dandelion. Photo by Des Poier.
Cormorants on the rocks. Photo by Des Poier.
A Steller Sea Lion on the Buoy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Having an Itch while they’re on the buoy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Look how long this sea lion’s whiskers are! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Some very robust little harbour seals. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
An Adult Bald Eagle on snake island. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
A juvenile bald eagle soaring overhead. Photo by Aly Kohlman.