You know it’s going to be a good day when you start off with multiple reports of whales in the area, and since this was the case today we left Nanaimo with high hopes. These hopes were met with not only humpback whales across the Strait of Georgia, but we also spent time with a pod of Biggs/Transient Orca over there!

The orca that we saw today were the T036s, consisting of the following members:

T036 Flapjack ♀ (≤ 1970)
T036B Tattertip ♀ (1998)
T036B1 Bhotia ♀ (2009)
T036B2 Greenfelder (2022)
T036B4 (2024)

T036 is an amazing whale since it’s estimated that she has 5 kids (4 living), with 15 grandkids (12 living). Not only does this mean that she is a good mother in the way that she can keep her own kids alive, but she also must be a great teacher since she has such successful daughters. It’s thought that not only are T036B (who we saw today) and T036A her daughters, but two you might not suspect based on their numbers: T099 Bella and T137 Loon! Since they were so old when first recorded, they would have got their own numbers, but given the continued relationships observed, they believe that they are her kids. Orca have very tight-knit family groups and like to spend time together. For the Biggs orca, this can be slightly more difficult since they rely on stealth for hunting so they can’t have their group sizes get too large. Usually, we see female orca disperse from their mother’s pod when they start having their own kids. This is why being able to teach your daughter life skills is so important! They need to have the skills to be successful
on their own and to support themselves and young calves when setting off. The males don’t get the same level of care, since they will stick with their mothers their whole lives.

While it was great spending time with the T036s, all good things must come to an end, so we left them to their travels. Not to worry, the excitement for the day isn’t over since we also got to see humpback whales today! They were spending time near the south end of Bowen Island, not to far from where we watched the orca today. There were sure a lot of humpbacks here today! We ended up stopping with three different groups of whales. The first group consisted of 5 different whales: Fader (BCY0195), Graphite (BCX2077), Thunderbolt (BCX1675calf2023), Raptor (BCY0458) and her calf who were seen feeding and resting in the area before they watched the orca. After the orca, they ended up finding two more groups of whales: Vanta (BCY1274) and Incognito (BCX2053) travelling together, and a group of four: Watson/Cerulean (KEY0043), Velvet (BCY1186), Europa (BCX0854), and Strike (BCX1675).

After spending some time with the various groups of humpbacks, it was time for us to return home. It seemed our early morning feeling today was right, it was a great day! The onboard marine naturalists Vanessa Vereschahen, Aly Kohlman, and Des Poier captured some amazing photos during our wildlife encounters which can be viewed below!

August 25, 2024, 10:30 am - Double Species Day Across the Strait

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