November 10, 2021 - Double species day!

November may be colder, wetter, and quieter than our other months of whale watching but the wildlife on our coast is as abundant as ever! We had a crisp, sunny day with great water conditions on November 10th as our guests and crew bundled up and set out at 12pm on our heated boat, Kula.

They didn’t have to go far or travel long before their first incredible cetacean encounter. Just 45 minutes into the tour we located a pod of killer whales near Entrance Island, just north of Gabriola Island. Entrance Island is a well known weather station and lighthouse, and we stop here frequently to view pinnipeds such as seals and sea lions. We are not the only ones who frequent this island for pinnipeds - the ecotype of killer whales that we search for feed predominantly on seals and sea lions and they were looking for some lunch!

Killer whales are extremely family oriented and organize themselves into matriarchal pods, meaning the eldest female is usually the one guiding and in charge of the family group. On this day we had a group of 4 whales called the T037s. T037, aka “Rocky III” or “Pizza Fin” is the eldest of the group, the matriarch, and she was born in 1979. Her daughter T037B “Harald” was born in 1998 and has two surviving offspring who also travel with them, T037B1 “Lance” and T037B2 “Trident”. They were born in 2012 and 2017 respectively.

We watched this family travel quickly while doing deep dives, probably eavesdropping in on seals and other prey in preparation for their next coordinated attack. Killer whales hunt together, like a pack of wolves, taking turns getting closer to the prey and working as a family to exhaust it. A hunt can be over as quickly as 5 mins or it can be dragged out for hours, depending on how strong the prey is, who is learning in the pod, and of course how hungry they are!

A couple of hours later we found two humpback whales, a much larger species of whale that migrate to our waters every year. Humpbacks are filter feeding whales who use their large baleen plates to filter out smaller prey like krill, herring, sand lance, and more. Because they are such large animals who require large amounts of energy, but they eat such small prey, they need to eat A LOT! From the spring through until the late fall that is their main focus up here in our nutrient dense waters.

We were able to capture fluke photographs of the two humpbacks that we were watching, and from these unique patterns in the photographs we were able to ID the whales. Each fluke is unique like a fingerprint and we have catalogues that have most of the whales we see locally! These two were identified as Mogul and Graphite.

Overall it was a fabulous day on the water and we hope to go out many more times this month! Here are some of the best photos taken by marine naturalist Rebecca Stirling.