We always say to keep your eyes open and scanning the entire time we are out on the water, as you never know where whales may appear. Sometimes they are at the tip of our range, and we may have to travel an hour or two to get to them. However, sometimes they are very close to home port - like today when we found orca travelling in Northumberland Channel, a mere 5 minutes from our dock!

After snapping a couple of photos, we identified this matriline as the T046B1s, with their cousin T046C2 Sam present as well:

T046B1 Tread ♀ (2003)
T046B1A Tsakani ♀ (2015)
T046B1C ♂ (2022)

T046C2 Sam ♀ (2009)

These 4 whales were slowly meandering along as we watched them. Little T046B1C was seen zipping from one pod member to the next, seemingly socializing with his sister, mother, and cousin.

While the T046B1s aren’t frequently seen in our area, they usually pop by once or twice before they head off on their way to travel and forge in other waters. In 2019, in nearly the same spot as we saw them today, this pod made headlines when Tread’s 2nd child, T046B1B T’luk, was first encountered - T’luk was newsworthy as he was noted to be a ghostly pale white colour! It was believed his unique colouring could be caused by either Leucism or Chédiak–Higashi Syndrome. Leucism is defined by a partial loss of pigmentation causing a very pale complexion. It differentiates from albinism which causes total loss of pigmentation - the easiest way to tell the differences is by observing the individual’s eyes. Individuals with albinism have pink eyes, whereas individuals with leucism tend to retain pigmentation in their eyes. Chédiak–Higashi Syndrome causes a specific type of albinism and is sadly known to cause immunodeficiency troubles. Young T’luk was seen with his family until June 2021 when his family was observed without him present.

Back then, T046C2 Sam was not travelling with them - but she does have a wild tale of her own! Back in 2013, T046C2 Sam was stranded in Weeteam Bay - a remote area along the coast. Sam was heard calling for her mother over and over when she was found in the bay. It was a complete accident that Sam was found at all - Weeteam Bay is extremely isolated, and there just happened to be a couple of researchers passing by there after a different whale survey who pulled into there to anchor for the night when she was located. It is estimated it took almost a month to lure Sam out of the bay, as she appeared fearful of the shallow entrance that connected to the sea.

While we are unsure why Sam hasn’t travelled with her mother and her siblings like most orca, we are happy that she isn’t travelling solo. Now 16 years old, Sam will likely be having her first calf soon - will she rejoin her mother then? Will she rely on Tread to help her learn the intricacies of motherhood? Only time will tell - orca are very family-focused and raising calves tends to be a whole-family endeavor

We left our orca behind to have a different surprising marine mammal encounter - this time with a small pod of Dall’s porpoises! While porpoises are plentiful on our coast, they are not regularly seen on our tours. They are generally skittish and hard to track, but every once in a while we find individuals that stay at the surface a bit more like we did today! Dall’s porpoises can be identified by their bright white dorsal fins which are a stark contrast to their black bodies. As they travel at high speeds, they produce a “rooster tail”, or a large splash of water as they zoom along the surface of the water.

After they zipped on their way we continued adventuring to find other wildlife. We stopped over at Snake Island, a favourite haulout for our Harbour Seals. Cozied up on the top of the rocks, our seals seemed very cozy and content in the spring sunshine. Our Steller sea lions were thriving in a similar fashion over on Stinky Rocks, a haulout located off of Valdez Island. We also located our third type of common pinniped in our area, the California sea lion, resting the day away atop the log booms near the Cable Bay trail.

All in all, it was an incredibly successful trip, and we headed back in excited to have had another truly amazing trip out on the water!

Please enjoy these photos of this beautiful orca family and today’s other wildlife taken by Marine Naturalist Val Watson!

April 4, 2025 - The T046B1 family (and a familiar cousin) right by our home port!