September 1, 2024, 3:30 pm - An interesting orca duo and some humpbacks as well
It was another beautiful day as we had two of our boats leaving the harbour, hopes were high as we glided over the water, excited to see what the afternoon would have in store for us. And boy, was there a lot in store!
We ended up getting both species of whales on this trip that are frequenting the waters around Nanaimo, Orca (aka Killer Whales), and Humpbacks! Let’s start with the orca.
We were lucky enough to see an interesting combination of orca this afternoon, with two young males travelling together. Both are known to travel away from the rest of their pod, but that doesn’t always mean that they are alone! It’s often the males that will strike out solo, perhaps bothered by the presence of the rest of their pod, or maybe it’s the other way around. We had:
T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)
T065A5 Indy ♂ (2014)
Noah’s usual pod consists of 5 other members currently, making it a bit crowded sometimes. It’s not just Noah who typically strikes out by himself from this pod, but one of his brothers, T049A2 Jude, also tends to travel solo.
Indy is also from a large family, with 5 members left when he leaves. Interestingly, he also has a brother who will strike out on his own every once in a while, T065A3 Amir! It’s correlations like this that lead to the theory that this happens with larger pod sizes, maybe to help prevent their success from lowering with the larger size. Since orca are ambush predators, they need to be stealthy to sneak up on their prey, and the more whales are travelling together, the harder this gets. Theoretically, some of the female members of these pods will also leave their mom’s side, but this usually happens when they start producing their own calves. As we get to spend more time with the whales, we seem to keep getting more questions arise rather than answered! We don’t mind this though, as the whales are fascinating! These two boys seemed to be enjoying each other’s company as they travelled along, swimming closely together and we even got an excited-looking little tail flick from Indy at one point!
In addition to the orca, we also saw a few pairs of humpback whales in the area. The first pair was viewed by both vessels, and it was Tempest (BCX0837) and her 2024 calf! These two have been a favourite of the company this year, since they seem to have a very close bond. While all humpback whale cow-calf pairs are very close, these two are often seen cuddling together and travelling much closer than the average association. Today they were up to about the same, with the calf glued to mom’s side as they slowly rose out of the water to breathe before returning to the depths to feed. It’s a really special sight!
After Tempest and calf, the boats saw two different pairs of whales. Our open boat spotted Split Fin (BCZ0298) and Split Fluke (BCX1068) who were being a little playful at the surface with a couple of waves of their 5-meter-long pectoral fins, and a slap of their tails. The covered-boat ended up with a different pair of whales: Valiant (BCX1773) and Geometry (BCZ0338). These two also seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, spending time together at the surface, and even getting a little curious about our vessel!
Most of the time the whales will stick with hanging out with each other, although we also see lots of humpbacks travelling by themselves. Although we didn’t aways know this, the humpback whales do seem to be quite social in the feeding grounds of BC. They often seem to pair up, and with the apparent abundance of food, they might have more free time to spend socializing with each other. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see these huge animals travelling in our waters.
But we can’t stay on the water all night, as much as we might like to, so the boats returned to Nanaimo after a look at the Steller Sea lions at Stinky Rock (with a Great Blue Heron surprise appearance) and looking at the sandstone Cliffs at the Gabriola Bluffs as the sun started to dip behind the mountains. It was such a beautiful trip, with some amazing moments captured in photos by the Marine Naturalists onboard Aly Kohlman and Desarae Poier, which can be viewed below!
T049A1 Noah with the coastal mountains in the background. Photo by Desarae Poier.
A tail slap from T065A5 Indy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Tails up! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Playing around. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T049A1 Noah surfacing. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T049A1 Noah. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T065A5 Indy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Someone had their "sea snake" out. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T049A1 Noah and T065A5 Indy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
T065A5 Indy and T049A1 Noah. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Making a splash! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Still at it! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
A little peak from T065A5 Indy. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Indy's face dipping back under the water. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Tempest with a corner of her calf's tail showing. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Tempest's dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
A beautiful lingering blow. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Valiant arching for a dive. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Geometry fluking. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Valiant with Geometry surfacing behind. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Split Fluke diving. Photo by Desarae Poier.
A pec slap from Split Fluke. Photo by Desarae Poier.
Split Fin going for a dive. Photo by Desarae Poier.
A moody west coast pic. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
An adorable Harbour Seal in the waves. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
A Blue Heron minding their own business. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Who is that getting this herons feathers ruffled? Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Not too impressed with this visitor. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
A very threatening pose from our heron hehe. Photo by Aly Kohlman.
That Gull better watch out! Photo by Aly Kohlman.
Steller Sea Lions checking us out. Photo by Desarae Poier.
Relaxing in the pool. Photo by Desarae Poier.
Fighting in the pool! Photo by Desarae Poier.
Cormorants in their nests at the Bluffs. Photo by Desarae Poier.
The stunning Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Desarae Poier.