T097 Gull entertains us near Neck Point Nanaimo, and then we catch up with Noah (T49A1) and his younger brother Judy (T49A2) near Gabriola Island.
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June 21st was a beautiful, sunny day as we set out in search of whales. We first found a lone humpback just North-East of Parksville.
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A beautiful day out on the Salish Sea with three humpback whales, including Big Momma, and a pod of transient/Bigg’s orca!
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Fader the Humpback was being very slap happy with our open vessel Cascadia during this trip!
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June 18th was a whale-filled day for us! 5 orca on the West coast of Galiano Island, and two Humpbacks off the East coast of the same island.
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June 17th turned out to be a very exciting trip when we encountered two very curious humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia east of Gabriola Island. These whales were Fader and Incognito and boy, did they put on a show!
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It was another great day on the water on the 14th of June when we left Nanaimo Harbour and headed out to find some wildlife! We ended up getting more than we bargained for when we found humpback whale Ocular, seals, sea lions, jellyfish, and even a curious raccoon!
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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!
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5 humpbacks were spotted today, including Slate and her Calf. We also got to see a peregrine falcon and some Turkey Vultures.
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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.
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This duo was spotted off of Galiano - Slate’s calf was extremely playful during this encounter!
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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!
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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.
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We had a couple of orca encounters in a single tour today!
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Slate and her calf were busy diving along the coast of Galiano Island when we visited with them today!
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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