It was such a beautiful day when we left the dock with our two open boats. We headed out in calm, sunny conditions and started the search. Although there was a pod of Orca not too far from home, just south of Dodd Narrows, we decided to wait to look at them since there was also a few whale watching boats already there with them! Part of how we work to reduce our impact on the animals is by not having too many boats watching them at once. Doing this helps reduce not only stress from crowding, but also the amount of noise that these whales face, since more engines running beside them will change the amount of noise being made. So instead of heading right to these animals, we headed out into the Strait of Georgia and tried to find some humpback whales. It didn’t take us long to find them, since they were making their presence known in a big way! We saw some breaching in the distance! We headed over, and were treated to a few more looks at the acrobatic abilities of the whales. When one dove, it was easy to ID her as Harpy (BCZ0503), a 2020 calf. She was travelling with another whale. When they started slapping their pectoral fins onto the water, one of the Naturalists thought they recognized a unique marking on the fin, and later confirmed it with a tail photo; it wasTwo Spot (BCZ0432)! While Harpy and Two Spot were having a grand old time celebrating at the surface, we noticed that we were sitting in a bowl of humpback soup! There was blows everywhere we looked in the distance and even a couple close enough for us to get IDable tail photos, one of the was Moray (BCY1176) and the other was Moraine (BCX1383 calf 2021)!

Moray seemed to be content by themselves in the distance but Moraine seemed to want to join the little party that Harpy and Two Spot had started, and turned the dynamic duo into a terrific triple! They didn’t have too much activity at the surface after the meet up, but we did hear some trumpeting from one of the whales, which is quite common during social situations.

Soon it was time to leave these three to their socializing, and it was time to head over to the orca that were still travelling north, just outside Nanaimo. Not without a quick stop for pinnipeds first though! The two boats decided to stop at different places for different pinnipeds, with one boat going to Stinky Rock for Sea Lions, and the other to the north end of Gabriola for Harbour Seals.

Finally, we ended up with the orca, which we were able to quickly identify as the T046Bs (-B1s)! the following whales were present:

T046B Raksha ♀ (1988)
T046B2 Akela ♀ (2008)
T046B2B (2023)
T046B3 Sedna ♀ (2011)
T046B4 Quiver ♀ (2013)
T046B6 Sol ♀ (2019)
T046B7 (2023)

When we first found them, they were travelling in a close group, going towards the Hudson Rocks ecological reserve. This is a protected area, with many nesting birds and pinniped haul outs within the boundaries, we stayed along the edge, waiting to see if they would stop inside to hunt, or if they would continue on their travels. Today it was the latter, and they continued into the open water of the Strait of Georgia. The time spent with them was really nice, they were travel, with a few members spreading out as out time with them went on. This group has two very young members, with T046B2B and T046B7 both only 1 year old. We love seeing young whales, since they seem so carefree with the way they surface next to their mom. T046B herself has obviously proven herself to be a great mom with this being her 6th surviving calf, but time will tell if T046B2 has more success this second time.

Losing calves is pretty common with orca, with about a 50% success rate overall for orca in the Pacific Northwest. This seems to be different by Ecotype though, as the Biggs/Transient Orca have better success than their Resident counterparts. Seeing these two young whales in the group was great, and a fantastic reminder about the importance of protecting all of the whales in our waters!

Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson and Lucy Willis.

June 28, 2024, 3:30pm - Happy Humpbacks and the T046Bs

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