Two boats left the dock this afternoon in search of whales and it didn’t take long to find them! We found three Transient Killer Whales travelling close to Neck Point, only fifteen minutes from home. Naturalist, Aly, was quick to identify these whales as:

T037A Volker ♀ (1994)
T037A2 Inky ♂ (2009)
T037A4 Crinkle ♀ (2015)

When looking at the dorsal fins of these orca, it’s easy to see how this family could be identified so quickly. Matriarch, Volker, has a notch in her fin we can use to narrow down who we’re looking at. Her son, Inky, also has a notch in his fin and is what we describe as a “sprouting male”. Orca go through puberty at around 12-15 years old which is when the dorsal fins of the males start to extend. Orca continue growing into their early twenties and once fully grown, the dorsal fins of our female orca are around 3 feet tall and the males reach around 6 feet. As Inky is currently somewhere between, we can tell we’re looking at a teenage whale. Finally, daughter Crinkle has quite a unique short and stubby dorsal fin along with a notch of her own. As orcas typically travel in matrilines, wherein a mom will stick with her children, we could quickly combine this knowledge with our three unique fins to figure out we’re with members of the T037A family.
Today, the family were moving slowly south. This very slow travel is typical of sleeping whales.

After our time with the Transients, our two boats headed across the Strait of Georgia, scanning for the big, bushy blows of Humpback Whales. Our first sighting was of a pair of humpbacks identified as Valiant (BCX1773) and Niagara (BCY0057).

The semi-covered boat was heading away from our first two humpbacks when two more popped up beside them. We hadn’t travelled far at all and at first, we even wondered if these were the same whales, but soon enough we identified them as a new pair, Constellation (BCX1784) and Specter (BCX1333 calf 2023).

It seemed that these humpbacks were likely feeding in the area. We can usually tell this when the humpbacks surface sporadically with longer dives. They will be diving anywhere up to 200m to get to the food that they’re after, which is typically Krill or small schooling fish. We know that a good portion of the food our humpbacks are eating is krill since when we are lucky enough to see them poop at the surface it has a very distinct Pinkish-red colouration (yes we count ourselves lucky when we see whales poop!).

Eventually, it came time to leave their whales to their feeding and we continued on to find other wildlife. One of our boats headed over to the White Islets where they found Sea Lions hauled out on the rocks, while the other found their Sea Lions hanging out on the Halibut Bank Buoy!

At the White Islets, there were also some really cute other critters, gull chicks! The gulls are nesting on the rocks there, and their chicks seem to be much more adventurous with so much space to explore! The young birds seem to be following one of their parents around the rocks. Interestingly enough, research shows that gulls will mate for life, and return to the same nests year after year, so these successful parents have likely been here before.

While the Semi-Covered vessel was enjoying their looks at the gull chicks, the open boat at the Halibut Bank Buoy was treated to their own wildlife sighting! It was some Harbour Porpoises that were quickly surfacing in the area. It seemed that there was some sleeping in the area at first, sitting at the surface for a while before we apparently woke them up and they started moving. These Harbour Porpoises are the smallest of the Marine Mammals that we see during our tour, only getting to be about a meter long when fully grown! It was neat to see them.

Soon it was time to start the trip back to Nanaimo, both boats started in that direction but a pair of whales had a different idea for the Semi-covered vessel. They ended up running into Anvil (BCZ0410) and her 2024 calf! They didn’t have too long to spend with these whales, but they enjoyed getting to see the new calf and Anvil travelling together in the Strait.

Soon both boats found themselves back in the Nanaimo harbour. All of the photos from this trip were taken by the onboard naturalists Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert, and can be viewed below!

July 7, 2024, 3:30 pm - the T037As right outside Nanaimo and 6 different humpback whales!

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