After a few breezy weeks on the water, we were happy to be heading out for our afternoon trip with the sun shining and the Strait of Georgia looking gorgeous and calm.
It didn’t take long before our open boat spotted their first Humpback Whale, Mow (BCY0523calf2023), however, after only a few minutes with Mow, a beautiful, synchronized double breach caught our attention in the distance.
A fully grown Humpback Whale can weigh up to 40 tonnes, so a single breach requires a huge amount of energy, equivalent to the expenditure of a human running a marathon! For this reason, we’ll often see activity in the distance, but the whales will have tired themselves out by the time we’ve caught up to them. Today, we decided to take the risk of leaving the whale we were with to head to the breaching pair, just in case the excitement continued. And boy, did it!
Both boats arrived to what we can only describe as a breachapalooza. Thanks to his acrobatics, we were quickly able to identify Kelpie (BCY1276), who was hogging the attention throughout our encounter. Between those big, beautiful breaches, Kelpie was alternating between slapping his huge pectoral fins and tail repeatedly on the surface of the water. Achilles (BCX2075calf2023) was alongside Kelpie, but that one breach we saw from a distance must have tired them out.

We have a few theories as to why our humpbacks exhibit this type of behaviour, including:

Communication - noise travels around four times faster through the water, so those big slaps on the surface are going to spread quickly, letting other whales in the area know they’re around.
Hitchhikers - Humpback Whales can carry up to 7,000 whale lice and up to 1,000 lbs of barnacles on their bodies at any given time! Humpbacks are very tactile animals, so if these build-ups become irritating or uncomfortable, hitting the surface can dislodge some of these critters.
Fun! - Just like other animals get the zoomies, so do our whales.

Towards the end of our time with them, Kelpie and Achilles were joined by two more humpbacks, whom we identified as Chinook (BCY0996) and Spotlight (BCX1480). It seems today’s activity may have been Kelpie asking if anyone wanted to join his whale party.

After our exciting humpback encounter, we made our way south towards a report of orca. We managed to find a family of Transient Killer Whales outside of Vancouver Harbour and identified Raksha travelling with three of her children:

T046B Raksha ♀ (1988)
T046B4 Quiver ♀ (2013)
T046B6 Sol ♀ (2019)
T046B7 Tala ♀ (2023)

Transients tend to travel in matrilines. Male Transient Killer Whales will typically stay with their mom for their entire lives, and females will stay until they have a calf or two of their own, then they’ll separate and form their own matrilines. Raksha has had seven children throughout her life, the three oldest of whom are females who have their own children and travel separately. As well as the four orcas near us, we could see two travelling together in the distance. We suspect these were another one of Raksha’s children with their calf. If so, it could have been either of the following pairs:

Unfortunately, they were too far away to get any pictures to confirm their identity.

If you’ve been doing the math, you may have realized that if Raksha has three children who travel separately, plus the three children with her today, there’s still one child unaccounted for. Sadly, T046B5, one of Raksha’s young calves, was involved in a rare and unusual event observed on December 2nd, 2016 — the only documented case of orca infanticide. On that day, researchers witnessed adult female T068 Yakataga ♀ (≤1970) and her adult son T068A Ken ♂ (1984) interacting with members of Raksha’s group. During this encounter, T068A was seen holding onto the calf’s tail, and it's believed this behaviour prevented the calf from surfacing to breathe.
While this event may sound unsettling, it is important to recognize it as an extremely rare behaviour in orcas. Such observations help scientists better understand the complexities of orca social dynamics and the wide range of behaviours exhibited by different individuals and families. Events like this, though difficult, are valuable opportunities for learning more about the natural behaviours that occur in wild orca populations.
As we made our way back to Nanaimo after our time with whales, we swung by Stinky Rocks, where we got to observe the Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals lounging around. We still have a surprising number of them still belching away from the top of the rocks - at this time of the year, most of them should be gone to the breeding grounds. We aren’t complaining though - it leads to more exciting encounters for us! This was followed by some Bald Eagle sightings to round off the wildlife encounters for the day.
Please enjoy the pictures from today’s trip, taken by on board Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert.

June 19, 2025, 3:30 PM - The Kelpie show