Although every day on the water searching for whales in the beautiful Salish Sea is great, it makes our lives much easier when someone reports a whale sighting nice and close to home for us. Such was the case today, as we heard that there was a pod of orca heading south through Dodd Narrows. Dodd Narrows is a narrow passageway about ten minutes from Nanaimo which is the northernmost entrance into the Southern Gulf Islands. Many things make this area great, with high biodiversity thanks to oxygen introduced by the currents, as well as being so narrow when the wildlife passes through there is a chance for great looks at them from shore. The narrows are only about 200 meters across, so if you are lucky enough to see the orca passing through, you get a closer look than you can from the boats, given our 200m watching distance. It is fleeting though, as they are usually through in one or two surfaces.

Today we caught up with the T101s as they were travelling south in Stuart Channel, just north of Yellow Point in Cedar. The 101s are an amazing pod consisting of matriarch Reef who travels with her two grown sons.

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

This pod is one of the best examples of the differences between males and females in orca, not only in looks but in behaviour. Reef has one other known child, who has since dispersed - T100. T100 has kids of her own, making Reef a grandmother. But what’s interesting is that the boys have stayed with their mom instead of going off on their own like their sister did. Part of this is due to the family structure of orca, with the males not being involved in the rearing of their offspring. They basically “do the deed” and that’s the only contribution to their kids. Yet family dynamics are super important, and males are an important part of that. But it’s a case of being really good brothers and uncles while also being deadbeat dads! They will help raise the kids within their own pods, and take care of younger individuals during social gatherings, but they stick with mom and therefore wouldn’t be there for their own kids since they would belong to a different pod than their own.

This is very important for keeping the genetic diversity of the orca population high since breeding within your own family (pod) is bad. All this to say, we know T100 has lots of kids since orca society is matriarchal, but it’s very likely that these big impressive boys also have plenty of kiddos out there, we just don’t know who the daddies are.

There is more genetic testing being conducted now since a new, less invasive method was recently developed via environmental (e) DNA! Researchers have been collecting samples from the “fluke prints” of whales or the water that they pull along with them that breaks the surface tension of the ocean where they surface. Just like us, whales are constantly losing skin cells, and if you take a sample from the water where they were, you should be collecting some of those. The issue becomes that you also have a sample of everything else nearby in the water. So how they deal with that is by taking the same sample, just not in the fluke print of the whale. You take this ocean sample and subtract it from the whale + ocean sample, and all you’re left with is the whale! It’s a very cool new technology. It’s not just whales that they’ve been using this technology for either - Have you ever heard of the Loc Ness Monster? Well they tested the lake that this monster is supposed to be located in using eDNA and found no evidence supporting an unknown animal living there, they did find a lot of Eel DNA though, leading to theories that the large sightings might just be Eels! It just goes to show the huge variation in the use of new technology.

After our time with the T101s was over our boats headed over to Stinky Rocks to get some views of the Pinnipeds that are often found hauled out there. It was super interesting there today, with the large Steller Sea Lions loud and active as per usual, and the little Harbour Seals as adorable as ever!

After the Stinky Stop, two of our vessels took the outside of Gabriola Island, while the other headed back to the inside passages of the islands. They got to drink in the beautiful scenery as they headed back towards Nanaimo. They ended up stopping at the Gabriola Bluffs, getting to see the Bald Eagle nest, as well as the towering sandstone cliffs housing hundreds of other nesting birds.

On the outside, the boats ended up coming across a young humpback whale who looked to be having a fun time rolling around at the surface of the water. Thanks to a couple of partial fluke photos, we were able to identify this humpback whale as Bagheera (BCY0523calf2021)! As you can see from the name, Bagheera is only 3 years old now, being born to humpback whale Graze (BCY0523) back in 2021. Although our time with Bagheera was short, it was very fun watching them rolling at the surface, giving us views of their pectoral fins, their underside, and of course, their tail flukes as they rolled from side to side.

After the little bit of time spent at the bluffs and with Bagheera for each boat, it was time to return to dock. What a great day!

All of the great photos captured by onboard Marine Naturalists Hayleigh Hilbert and Vanessa Vereschahen are included below!