March is here, which means today was the first trip on the Zodiacs for the 2025 season! Once we were cozied up in our suits we headed down to the boat and started our trip!

It didn’t take us long before we spotted a couple of black dorsal fins cutting through the water near Gabriola Island. However, once we started snapping photos, we were able to identify these whales as members of J pod. This is important as J pod is a part of the Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population, a distinct orca ecotype that is sadly critically endangered that we do not watch. You may be wondering how we can tell the difference between these orca and the Transient/Bigg’s orca population, which is the population we do watch. These are the key features we look for when identifying our orca:

Dorsal fin - SRKW dorsal fins tend to be ‘perfect’, very rarely missing chunks or being bent. Transient dorsal fins often have large gashes, chunks missing, or are bent. This is primarily from the difference in their diets. SRKW eat salmon whereas Transients eat seals and sea lions - pinnipeds have large claws and teeth which they use to defend themselves against their predators (in this case, orca). SRKW dorsal fins tend to have a rounder tip compared to Transient dorsal fins that are usually very pointy.
Saddlepatch - SRKW saddle patches may be ‘open’, or have a black patch in the middle of the whitish area. Transient saddle patches are solid white-grey with no black patches in the middle. Transient saddle patches are also more likely to be covered with scratches/scars.
Eyepatches- SRKW eyepatches tend to be pretty flat across the top. It is common for Transient eyepatches to slope down at the back.

Being able to tell these whales apart is very important as we do not watch the Southern Resident population. Once we had photo confirmation that we had spotted J pod, we moved away and continued our adventure elsewhere. We strive to only stay with healthy and growing populations, and we always have since our company opened. We hope that the SRKW can repopulate and grow in numbers, and hopefully, one day will also be considered a healthy and growing population.

We continued onwards and entered search mode once again, scanning the horizon for more dorsals. We crossed the Strait of Georgia and approached Halibut Bank where we saw more dorsal fins! These dorsal fins were different though - they were very very small. These dorsals belonged to a pod of Harbour Porpoises - one of the smallest cetaceans in the world. These porpoises tend to congregate around the Halibut Bank ODAS buoy, an area that is teeming with many different fish for them to eat. We watched them zip around for a bit before we turned and began looking once more.

After a bit of searching, we caught word of a sighting of orca in English Bay near Vancouver! We made our way over and scanned until suddenly, two large dorsals popped up! These two big bull orca were identified as Harbeson and Cooper.

T087 Harbeson ♂ (~1962)
T124C Cooper ♂ (1992)

It appeared that the duo had finished off a meal shortly before we arrived, as several gulls were picking off chunks of meat from the water’s surface. They then began travelling side-by-side, meandering along once again.

This isn’t the first time we have seen these two travelling by themselves. In 2023 these two were spotted buddied up together for an extended period. We had encounters with them travelling together in May, June, and July!

Once our time with the boys was up we left and began crossing back towards home port. On our way back we took another pitstop at Entrance Island, a small rocky island where many of our different wildlife species like to rest. Today we spotted a large male Steller sea lion with a bad case of “bed head” grumbling away on the shores - you can take a peek at his photo below! There was also a large juvenile Bald Eagle watching from the top of the rocky hill, likely keeping an eye on the water in case an easy snack popped up.

After snapping some photos we left our sea lion and eagle as it was time to return to port, wrapping up another great day out on the water. Please enjoy this tour’s photos by Marine Naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen!

Spring is here, and that means we are starting to see lots of babies around - like this little harbour porpoise!

T124C Cooper Orca Saddlepatch Dorsal — T124C Cooper with his distinct dorsal and saddle patch!

T087 Harbeson with his ragged dorsal tip visible.

T087 Harbeson Orca Tailflick — T087 Harbeson, believed to be the oldest male in the Transient orca population, flicking his tail and showing off his dorsal and saddle patch.

March 1, 2025 - A favourite pair of Orca in Vancouver!