On the 13th we headed out into the Strait where we saw four humpback whales! it was Casseiopia and three others. We also saw seals, sea lions, and other wildlife. It was a great day on the water!
Read More
5 humpbacks were spotted today, including Slate and her Calf. We also got to see a peregrine falcon and some Turkey Vultures.
Read More
After viewing the humpbacks we tucked into the Gulf Islands for a bit of a scenic tour and to look for other wildlife. We were expecting to find seals and eagles, and we were delightfully surprised when we found two large orcas on the way home! Just north of Dodd Narrows, near Harmac, killer whales T128 (Flotsam) and T125A (Jetsam) were traveling along the log booms.
Read More
This duo was spotted off of Galiano - Slate’s calf was extremely playful during this encounter!
Read More
4 pods came together to celebrate and socialize and humpbacks took naps near the Nanaimo Harbour in todays blog. Click to read all about it!
Read More
We had a couple of orca encounters in a single tour today!
Read More
On May 29th we left on our first sunset tour of the season! We headed out of the harbour and headed North in our search for whales. We encountered the T123’s, T100’s, and the T46B’s playing together in the middle of the Strait of Georgia. Laurel (T100C) and Stanley (T123A) were both seen tail splashing and pec slapping with their pods. These two males seemed extremely excited to be interacting with the other pods. After watching these pods frolic, we left the scene to see if we could follow up on a reported Humpback sighting in the nearby area. We located at least 5 different Humpbacks in the area, including Valiant (KEX0049), a cow-calf pair (mother and child), and a couple of others we are currently working on IDing.
Read More
Slate and her calf were busy diving along the coast of Galiano Island when we visited with them today!
Read More
Our crew were out for some routine safety drills when they got wind of some humpbacks nearby. It was one of our regulars - Slate - and with a new calf in tow!
Read More
The T036’s are a pod of 5 killer whales, led by the oldest female in the group, the matriarch T036 “Flapjack”. Flapjack was born around 1970 and had her daughter “Tattertip” T036B in 1998. Tattertip has a unique dorsal fin with two notches in it, one at the very tip (her namesake). She has had three successful offspring, T036B1 “Bhotia” born in 2009, T036B2 “Greenfelder” born in 2013, and the newest member of the pod, T036B3 born in 2018. That’s three generations of whales!
Read More
May 23rd was a sunny day with a slight chop when we headed out in search of whales. After searching for a little while, we came across a humpback called “Incognito” near Porlier Pass. We use a combination of the dorsal fin, the pattern and the trailing edge of the fluke to identify individual humpback whales. These beautiful animals were hunted to the brink of extinction and it’s only been in the past 5-10 years that we’ve seen a tremendous exponential growth of the population locally in the Salish Sea. Keta Coastal Conservation is a local non-profit that has been researching the return of these humpbacks to the Salish Sea.
Read More
May 22nd was a beautiful day as we headed out in our two vessels Cascadia and Kula. We had a report of a humpback whale near the Hudson Rocks Ecological Reserve close to home and later got a report of Transient Killer Whales as we were heading out near Northumberland Channel. We found the T46B’s here who were moving quite fast there.
Read More
Whales, whales everywhere! Cascadia had come across what we call a “T-Party”, which is when multiple pods of Bigg’s/transient orca join together and socialize. Typically killer whales will travel in their family pod which is led by the oldest female, the matriarch, and followed by her offspring and their offspring. However, killer whales are incredibly social animals and will often join up with other pods to mate, socialize and hunt. It’s always a good day when we catch a large a group like this socializing!
Read More
The T123’s do some seal hunting in Porlier Pass on May 14th.
Read More
The T123’s were traveling slowly and close together, making for some beautiful photographs and peaceful moments. The leader of this pod, the matriarch, is T123 “Sidney”, a mother of three who was born around 1985. Even though she’s the oldest and leads the pod, it’s her son Stanley, T123A, that usually steals the show with his giant dorsal fin. A full grown male orca’s fin can get up to 6 feet tall! Stanley was born in the year 2000 and his fin has a distinct notch about 1/3 of the way down.
Read More
This large group of transient killer whales was what we affectionately call a “T-Party” - a large group of marine mammal-hunting killer whales composed of multiple pods who are usually not seen traveling together. There were 12+ whales in this superpod, from about 6 different small matriarchal pods. Some of the whales we identified from our photos were the T18’s, T36’s, T46B’s (no Tl’uk), T63 & T65, T100’s, T46C2 and T125A & T128, and possibly more!
Read More
On May 8th, we set out in search of whales on our open boat Cascadia. During our search for whales, we first found some Steller sea lions and a bald eagle hunting! We also found Hammer in Stuart Channel.
Read More
On May 2nd, our open boat Cascadia and our semi-covered Kula set off in search of whales. The weather was sunny and the water was super smooth making it a perfect day for whale watching. Cascadia found a young humpback called Hammer hanging around Thetis Island.
Read More
The first day of May was a great one as we headed out into the calm waters of this sunny day. We set out south towards the Gulf Islands to find our whales for the day. As we were looking for the whales, we came across a huge diversity of wildlife. We came across harbour seals, sea lions and a young humpback called Hammer.
Read More
A family of six Bigg’s killer whales nicknamed the T49A pod. Head of the pod is matriarch T049A “Nan” and following her are her 5 offspring T049A1 “Noah”, T049A2 “Judy”, T049A3 “Nat”, T049A4, and T049A5.
Read More