September 1, 2024, 10:30 am - T002Cs and T075Bs still together and Humpback Whales Professor X, Seabird, and Bullet

We have been super lucky lately since we have been seeing a group of orca travelling together a lot, the T002Cs and T075Bs! This group of 8 whales have been closely associating for the last while. We tend to wonder if the matriarchs Tasu and Pebbles are old friends, who are catching up, or if maybe there is some unknown other connection. Today they weren’t exactly living up to the name “t-party” which is what we call it when there are multiple pods of orca travelling together. Sometimes this can cause excitement in the whales since it’s fresh new faces to interact with, but these two must be more comfortable with each other after spending so much time here lately. Today we caught these whales traveling a bit as they rested. While we don’t think that these whales were sleeping, they were definitely moving more slowly than usual, indicating a resting pattern. The whales present during this resting encounter were:

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

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

We watched these whales rising in and out of the water during our time with them, and then left them to it and went back into search mode. We ended up coming across another great sight: a humpback whale! This whale was doing something interesting, known as “kelping”. Whales (both humpback and orca) are known for doing this as they are both very tactile creatures. This is their version of a spa treatment, as this helps exfoliate their skin. They will roll around and frolic in the seaweed playing with large clumps of kelp at the surface, this acts like a scrub for them. They can maintain skin health by removing dead skin cells, whale lice and possibly even some barnacles as they romp around in the kelp. What is even more exciting about seeing this behaviour is the whales do it worldwide, both Humpback and Orca! They have been observed playing and exfoliating in this manner globally, with the preference being kelp, however, they will use other seaweed available as well. After watching these whales at the “spa” we continued on.

We stopped at one of our favourite haulouts we call Stinky Rocks, here we met our Steller Sea Lions and their little cousins the Harbour Seals. These guys were hanging out on the rocks sunning themselves most likely warming back up from fishing in the chilly deeper water. we also spotted a Bald Eagle with some fish in their talons as they flew above us! One last stop to take in the beauty of the Gabriola Bluffs before we arrived back in Nanaimo.

Photos taken by onboard Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Desarae Poier.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky's wavy dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C1 Rocky in front of the Coastal Mountains. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

T002C Tasu. Photo by Desarae Poier.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Desarae Poier.

A great look at T002C Rocky's dorsal fin. Photo by Desarae Poier.

T002C1 Rocky going for a dive. Photo by Desarae Poier.

T002C Tasu, T075B3 Rubble, and T075B Pebbles. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Matriarchs T075B Pebbles and T002C Tasu travelling together. Photo by Desarae Poier.

T002C1 Rocky. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Professor X kelping. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Professor X's rostrum while he was kelping. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Professor X flicking their tail. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The top side of Professor X's tail. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Professor X's dorsal fin. Photo by Desarae Poier.

A big tail flick from Professor X. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The underside of Professor X's tail. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Professor X's rostrum. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Those bumps are called tubercules. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Professor X flicking their tail. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Bullet making a fluke waterfall. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Seabird making a fluke waterfall. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The underside of Bullet's tail. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Bullet (left) and Seabird (right). Photo by Desarae Poier.

Seabirds tail with bullet diving beside her. Photo by Desarae Poier.

A young bald eagle with some fish bones. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Turkey Vultures on Stinky Rocks. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Steller Sea Lions sleeping on the rocks. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Steller Sea lions on Stinky Rocks. Photo by Desarae Poier.

The splashes on their fur made this sea lion look a little strange. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Harbour Seals on the rocks. Photo by Desarae Poier.

Our little cormorants are growing up! Photo by Desarae Poier.