September 7, 2024, 10:30 am - Orca in the waves!

The day was giving West Coast vibes as we left Nanaimo with all three of our boats and started searching for whatever whales might be around for the day. We spread out our boats after having all three boats go through Dodd Narrows. Spreading out increases our chance of finding something during our search since we can cover more ground! Such was the case today when two boats found whales separate of each other. One found humpback whales and the other one found a group of orca. The humpback whales were out further in the Strait and looked to be feeding. We were able to ID one of these whales as Sherwina (BCY0961), but the other we didn’t get good enough photos of it to be able to identify them. Since they were further out it was quite wavy, so this boat decided to leave the humpbacks to it, and started travelling south to join up with the group of orca.

This group of orca is very familiar to us at this point: The T002Cs and T075Bs travelling together! Today the gang seemed to be split up, with the majority of our time spent with T002C1 Rocky, T002C3 Lucy, and T075B Pebbles. We saw the rest of the group when we first found the whales, and then they seemed to join back up around Gabriola pass, towards the end of our vessels time with the whales. The T002Cs and T075Bs consist of the following members:

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 (2020)

T075B Pebbles ♀ (1995)
T075B2 Jasper ♀ (2015)
T075B3 Rubble ♂ (2017)
T075B4 (2021)

It was fun watching them work their way through the waves, since we got to see a lot of their faces while they did so. It’s one of the coolest things about watching whales in wavy weather!

After their time with these orca, the boats split up once again to start searching, two went north and saw some Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals at Stinky Rock, while the other boat tucked into the inside of the Gulf Islands, also getting a look at some Harbour Seals before running into another pod of orca! These whales were the T023s spread over quite a distance.

T023 Janice ♀ (≤1964)
T023D Axle ♀ (1993)
T023D3 Robin ♂ (2012)
T023D4 Sixx (2015)
T023D5 (2019)

This pod is known as the Motley Crew since their nicknames come from rock stars! Since they were pretty far south, the other boats didn’t have time to come join in watching them, and we couldn’t stay too long either so we got a few looks at these whales before leaving them to their travels and continuing north until we found ourselves back in the Nanaimo Harbour. There were some amazing photos captured by Marine Naturalists Aly Kolhman, Val Watson, and Vanessa Verechahen which can be viewed below!

The underside of Sherwina’s tail as she dive. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B Pebbles surfacing in the waves. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B Pebbles has lots of scarring on her saddle patch. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C3 Lucy’s eye patch. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky surfacing. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky going through a wave. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A Common Loon floating by the whales. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C Tasu has notches near the bottom of her dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B4 surfacing beside T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T075B Pebbles leaving Gabriola Pass. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky surfacing. Photo by Val Watson.

Look at all those scars on T002C1 Rocky’s saddle patch. Photo by Val Watson.

T002C1 Rocky breaking through a wave. Photo by Val Watson.

T002C3 Lucy beside T075B Pebbles. Photo by Val Watson.

A Common Murre floating by the whales. Photo by Val Watson.

Cascadia and Kula watching the whales. Photo by Val Watson.

T002C3 Lucy surfacing with Valdes Island in behind. Photo by Val Watson.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T002C1 Rocky surfacing beside T002C3 Lucy. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

A lovely look at T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Majestic looking Steller Sea Lions. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Fighting amongst the Steller Sea Lions. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A yawn or a roar from this Steller Sea Lion. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

You can see a huge variation in the Harbour Seals at Stinky Rock. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Some happy Harbour Seals. Photo by Val Watson.

Size difference between an adult and Juvenile Harbour Seal. Photo by Val Watson.

Cute Harbour Seal on Stinky Rock. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

This Harbour Seal Looks extra fluffy. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

T023 Janice. Photo by Val Watson.

T023D4 Sixx breaking the surface in front of T023D Axle. Photo by Val Watson.

T023D5 surfacing, you can see the rake marks on their dorsal fin. Photo by Val Watson.

T023D Axle and T023D4 surfacing together. Photo by Val Watson.

T023 Janice. Photo by Val Watson.

8 Turkey Vultures munching on something on the logs. Photo by Val Watson.

A California Sea Lion at Harmac. Photo by Val Watson.