It was a lovely, although overcast, afternoon. We had two of our boats leaving Nanaimo with anticipation high and eyes peeled. Each tour starts fresh, with all the marine mammals in our waters free of trackers and tags (at least for the most part), which means that we have to find the whales every time we are out on the water again. Lucky for us, we are pretty good at spotting them, and we also work with the other companies sharing sightings to increase our chances. We had seen some orca heading south earlier in the day, so we decided to head into the Strait of Georgia again to see if we could find them for this tour. One boat stayed close to shore, while the other went a bit further out, and both had success in their search!

The semi-covered boat had spotted a humpback whale in the distance, slapping their pectoral fin against the water. These fins are about 5 meters in length when the whale is fully grown, making them a bit easier to spot on the water than a normal surfacing humpback. Upon arriving, the whale changed behaviour and went from slapping those massive fins to diving deeper for food. The good thing about that is that they revealed their tail to us, allowing us to identify them as Pony (BCX1604)! Pony isn’t that commonly spotted of a whale for us, only showing up a couple of times each year, so we are always very excited when they do!

While the one boat spent time with Pony, the other had found the orca again, and soon both boats shared in this sighting. It was a pair of two males travelling together:

T060D Onca ♂ (2004)
T060E Lynx ♂ (2008)

These two brothers have left the rest of their pod behind for the last few years, choosing to keep each other as travel companions instead of spending time with the rest of their pod. They are usually found a bit further north, often prowling around in the waters of the Broughton Archipelago. Quite famously, they even did a couple of runs right into Telegraph Cove, giving whale watchers quite the look before they even got on the water! Today, they didn’t have much interest in the nearby Harbours of Gabriola Island and seemed content to continue their travels along the shoreline and off into the Strait. We ended up with some great looks before we left them to it, and we continued our search through the Salish Sea.

At this point, our two boats had different things in store for them, based on the directions they took from Onca and Lynx. The covered boat was stuck in the Strait of Georgia, while the open boat headed inside the Southern Gulf Islands to search its way north, back towards the waters off of Nanaimo. The covered boat was aimed there as well, but something caught their eye along the way: more orca! This time, it was a family of 5 whales travelling together, and one of our favourites to see: the T002Cs!

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)
T002C6 (2025)

These whales were patrolling the area for food, moving swiftly amongst the small islands of the Southern Gulf Islands, stopping by the local Harbour Seal haul outs as they went. Although finding a snack seemed to be the goal here, we didn’t see them find success during our time watching, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t once we left!

While Kula and her guests enjoyed their time with the T002Cs, the open boat had made its way back to Nanaimo, or just north, where there was a bunch of humpbacks spending their time. Amongst the group were some notable whales, including Fishbone (BCY1474), Nike (BCX1377), and Scuttle (BCX1795), but the ones that caught our eye the most were the group of three: Valiant (BCX1773), her 2025 calf, and Beak (BCX1606). While most of the whales seemed to be feeding in the area, diving deep below the surface to chase down their prey of Krill and small schooling fish, Valiant and Beak seemed to be in a different state of mind, and one that the calf wasn’t too happy about. Beak seemed to be chasing Valiant around, sometimes separating her from her calf, who was jumping out of the water in protest, seemingly trying to get Beak to leave her alone! Although this is all speculation, and it’s possible that something else was at play entirely, it has been observed that males harassing females in our waters towards the end of the year has occurred, although not usually with a calf in protest of the behaviour.

Both of these encounters were special in their own way, although very different; however, both boats returned to Nanaimo very pleased with all the wildlife and behaviours they had witnessed during their trips. Please enjoy all the photos included below, captured by Marine Naturalists Val Watson (onboard Kula) and Desarae Poier (on the open boat).

September 6, 2025, 3:30 PM - Double Species around Gabriola Island

Pony

Onca and Lynx

The T002Cs

North Nanaimo Humpbacks