May 22, 2025, 5:00 PM - Playtime!
It was a wonderful night for an evening charter as we set off from the dock with a specific mission in mind: find orcas! Our team was up for the challenge as we raced across the Georgia Strait towards mainland BC and Vancouver. As we made our way across, the water was stunning, and even though we didn’t stop, we did manage to see a humpback blowing in the distance! Despite the humpback, the mission to find orcas remained the same! There had been orcas spotted under the Lions Gate Bridge a few hours before, and we were hoping to find them. You’d think knowing where orcas were a few hours before would make them easy to find, but that’s not usually the case. Orcas can easily travel well over 100 kilometres a day, so they are rarely in the same place for long. Luckily, our guests had some eagle eyes and quickly spotted one of the 5 orcas that we would see during the trip!!
T086A1 Nahanni ♀ (~2001)
T086A1B Denali (2023)
T086A Eider ♀ (1988)
T086A4 Akia ♀ (2016)
T086A5 Siku (2024)
We were so fortunate to find the T086As and T08A1s. It was fantastic to see Eider and Nahanni reunited after they spent the last year travelling separately. In 2024, Eider, Nahanni and another one of Eider’s daughters, Tyndall, all produced calves around the same time. This created an upheaval in the family, and Tyndall and Nahanni split off from their mother. Typically, female orcas will help their daughters with their first calves, but Eider would have already had her hands full with her own new calf. Luckily, Nahanni is incredibly resilient, and she was able to keep her calf alive for the first year, which is a huge feat!
It would seem as though we weren’t the only ones excited about the family reunion, as the two calves spent the entire time playing and darting around together while Eider spent her time as far away from the action as possible. I guess Grandma needed a little bit of a break!
As the sun began to set, we made our way back towards Nanaimo and enjoyed some time hanging out at Entrance Island with our Stellar sea lions and harbour seals. With the beautiful lighting and calm water, this trip felt truly magical! You can see the photos from our wonderful trip below!
Photos by naturalist Aly Kohlman
T086A1B Denali cutting through the water!
Each eyepatch is unique, this one belongs to T086A1B Denali.
T086A1B Denali and T086A5 Suki splashing around.
T086A1 Nahanni crashing through the water.
Matriarch T086A Eider coming up for a breath.
Beautiful T086A1B Nahanni has such a unique eyepatch!
T086A1 Denali only recently got their name!
T086A5 Siku still has an orange tinge to the whites parts, they will become whiter as Siku ages.
T086A5 Siku plowing through the water.
T086A4 Akia with the Vancouver airport in the background.
T086A1B Denali with mountains in the background.
An orca with the sunset.
Harbour seals hanging out around Entrance Island.
Steller Sea Lions cuddle puddle.
Steller Sea Lion male relaxing.
Steller Sea Lion male enjoying some solo time on the rock.
Sun setting from Kula.
Canadian Geese flying.
We saw a lot of pacific loons on our trip today!
A beautiful sunset.
Geese flying into the sunset.