Today was a day of doubles: Double boats, double orca, double humpbacks and double species!

We set sail, with two boats out to explore the Salish Sea. We started south, following a report all the way down to Saanich Inlet. In the calm waters of the inlet, we found our first whales for the day, two familiar fins! These lovely brothers were:

T049A1 Noah ♂ (2001)
T049A2 Jude ♂ (2007)

Noah and Jude have spent a lot of time together lately, which is a change for them! While orca typically travel with their family pods for most of their lives (or until their matriline is quite large), we have a handful of large, mature males in the Bigg’s/Transient population that have dispersed to take on the world on their own. This is the case for both Noah and Jude, who have dispersed from their matriline the T049As. Usually, these two travel on their own, occasionally picking up friends along the way. But for the past few days, these brothers have been travelling together, clearly on a brother’s bonding trip! While both males have sprouted (i.e. gone through puberty), there is still a sizable difference in their dorsal heights, with Noah towering over his younger brother. Check out the pictures below to take a better look! We are sure Jude will catch up in the next few years, as he is already well on his way!

These two were lovely to watch, spending lots of time at the surface. At one point, Jude decided to play with a prawn trap, taking great pleasure in dragging the float around. It’s pretty common to see these guys playing with prawn or crab traps, as they are highly intelligent and curious about their surroundings. Although they are pretty good at not getting tangled in the traps, that’s not always the case! In 2020, DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) was called when a young orca appeared to get stuck in the lines of a similar trap off Neck Point. While the young whale was able to finally free themselves, if they are more severely tangled, they face the risk of injury or drowning. With an assortment of fishing lines, stray nets, traps, and other marine debris left carelessly floating in the Salish Sea, entanglement is a serious concern for our whales, for both Orca and Humpbacks alike. Over 50% of the humpbacks in the Salish Sea have been involved in entanglements, with many exhibiting tell-tale scarring on their flukes and backs. This is why it is so important to properly secure lines and netting to reduce human impacts on these majestic creatures!

After spending some time with these gorgeous boys, we left them to continue their adventures, and we did the same ourselves. We decided to poke our heads out to the Strait to see what we could find. We soon saw some bigger blows across the water, which turned out to be a pair of early-season Humpbacks! These two were ID’d as Specter (BCX1333 calf 2023) and Moresby (BCY0324 calf 2022). While these two were being less than cooperative about getting a good ID shot, we were able to get enough to verify their identities at least! To identify our humpbacks, we look for a combination of coloration, scars, and notches on the underside of the tail. This can be challenging for young humpbacks, as their fluke pigmentation can change dramatically in their first few years of life. Often, calves have what we describe as a “milky white” complexion on their flukes, which may turn to a solid white or fade to black as they age. This drastic change in colouring can lead to confusion when identifying the young whales, as sometimes they look completely different the following season!

Moresby is a great example of this - look how he has changed over the years!

While Moresby’s pigment has changed, we can verify his identity due to the 2 large notches along his fluke’s trailing edge, and the distinct shape of the chunk between the two notches - can you see them in the photo above?

If they don’t raise their flukes (tail) while we are on scene, we can also ID from their dorsal fins, but this is quite a bit more tricky - thankfully this pair’s dorsals are distinct enough that paired with their tiny fluke tip shots we captured, we were able to confidently ID them.

Morseby and Specter were busy feeding away while we watched them. This makes sense, as these two youngsters likely just recently returned from Hawaii. It takes multiple months for these gentle giants to leave our area, get to their breeding grounds, and then return to our area (their feeding grounds) the following spring. During this migration, humpbacks rarely feed, relying mostly on their fat reserves to keep themselves going. This causes them to be very famished once they get back to our area. Understandably, they are very focused on packing on the pounds once they return, causing them to be a bit lethargic for the first bit of the season.

Once our time with our whales was up, we had to head on out, and we began searching for other wildlife. We zipped around and scoped out the area. We stopped to see our Steller sea lions belching and grumbling away, as well as snoozing in the early season sunshine. While we don’t have nearly as many of them around now as we did earlier in the year, as many of them have departed for the breeding grounds to the north of our area, it is still amazing to see the huge pinnipeds lumbering along. Besides seeing the world’s largest sea lions, we also saw a Bald Eagle perched high up on an antenna.

Our Bald Eagles are a remarkable story of recovery and resilience. Once facing near extinction due to DDT usage, their population has bounced back with incredible ferocity since its banning. Sadly, DDT caused eggshell thinning - something that is a huge issue for a large and heavy bird like a Bald Eagle. When the adults would sit on the nest, it would cause the eggs to crack open. Now, it is estimated that roughly 20,000 Bald Eagles call British Columbia their home.

We headed back to the harbour, ending a perfect double-species day out in the Salish Sea!

Please enjoy these photos by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Hayleigh Hilbert, and Jordan Robinson.

May 8, 2025 - Double Stuff