September 4, 2024, 3:30 pm - The T035As, T060 Brothers, and some humpback whales to boot!
We left the dock this afternoon and decided to head south in our search. There has been an abundance of whales around the Gabriola Reefs lately, so we decided to try our luck there. Before we could make it though, we saw some black dorsal fins cutting through the water. We found orca! It took us a little bit of time to figure out who these whales were since we don’t see them often in the area. It turned out to be the T035As, a group of 5 whales travelling together:
T035A Lester ♀ (1998)
T035A1 Opal ♀ (2010)
T035A2 Topaz ♂ (2013)
T035A3 Garnet (2018)
T035A4 ♂ (2022)
These whales seemed like they may have been resting together as we were watching them since they were moving slowly at the surface, doing longer dives, and travelling pretty close together. This may also have contributed to why it took us a little longer than usual to ID these whales since when they aren’t coming up out of the water very high, it can be tough to see the detail in the saddle patch that makes IDing whales without distinct notches in the dorsal fin much easier. One of these whales, Lester, does have a small notch close to the top of her dorsal fin that we could have used, except that she was spending more of her time away from the side that the cameras were on! These guys looked like they were going to take Porlier Pass, but then they returned to the inside of the islands and continued North.
At this point, we left them to it and went outside of the islands, towards our original target: Thrasher Rock. Here we were rewarded with the sight of blows in the distance. We had found Humpbacks! There were four different groups of humpbacks found today throughout the tours, split into pairs and one group of three: Bullet (BCX1658) and Pingu (BCY1110), Harpy (BCZ0503) and Europa (BCX0854), Zephyr (BCZ0414) and her 2024 calf plus an unknown, Valiant (BCX1773) and Geometry (BCZ0338). This area has been popular for our humpbacks this year, likely due to a high abundance of their food! Humpbacks like to spend time in areas of high productivity, since it means less energy spent travelling to get the food that they need during the day. We often will have little hotspots like this one, and we like to call it “humpback soup” since they’re so abundant it’s like they’re the noodles in the ocean soup. We enjoy spending time with these gentle giants, partially because of their large size! Humpback whales can reach the impressive size of 17 meters in length, with the big tails that they lift when they dive growing to around 20 feet across. They’re amazing to see!
While we were floating around in this humpback soup, something else spotted our eye, there was more orca in the distance! This time it was just two of them and two males to boot. With adult orca it’s quite easy to tell the difference between males and females since they have sexual dimorphism, meaning that there is a visible difference between the genders. In the case of orca, the males get to be much larger than the females! Growing to about 8 meters in length compared to the female’s 6 meters, and their fins also grow to be proportionally larger as well. Males dorsal fins are the most obvious example of this, growing to an impressive 6 feet tall, while females only get to be about 4 feet. These two boys were a rare sight in the area, the T060 boys! They tend to travel together away from the rest of their family, typically spending their time further north, near Telegraph Cove. They are:
T060D Onca ♂ (2004)
T060E Lynx ♂ (2008)
We thought that there might be some interaction between the humpbacks that were nearby and these whales since they were in tight quarters, and Valiant is known for not liking having orca nearby, but they all continued on their way and eventually, we did as well. With a final quick stop at Stinky Rocks to see some seals and sea lions, we found ourselves back in the harbour. What a great afternoon! Please enjoy all of the photos included below taken by the onboard marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A1 Opal, T035A Lester, and T035A4 travelling together. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A2 Topaz surfacing beside T035A4. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A2 Topaz showing off his eye patch. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Family photo of the T035As. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A2 Topaz surfacing along the Galiano shoreline. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
A tail in the middle of Porlier Pass. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A1 Opal surfacing in the current. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T037A2 Topaz in Porlier Pass. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A3 Garnet, T035A2 Topaz, and T035A Lester. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A2 Topaz travelling beside T035A Lester. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A4 beside it's mom T035A Lester. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T035A2 Topaz. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Pingu's tail fluke. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T060E Lynx surfacing in the waves. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T060E Lynx and T060D Onca together. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
A nice look at T060E Lynx. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
T060E Lynx. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Valiant going for a dive. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Valiant making a fluke waterfall. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
The underside of Valiant's tail sporting the scars from an orca attack. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Geometry going for a dive. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
The underside of Geometry's tail. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Europa making a fluke waterfall. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
The underside of Europa's tail. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
The underside of Harpy's tail flukes. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Zephyr going for a dive. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Steller Sea Lions at Stinky Rocks. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
Harbour Seals on Stinky Rock. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.
"I am the Batman" - This seal probably. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.