May 5, 2026 - A family affair?
It was a beautiful, breezy morning as we loaded onto our semi-covered boat and zodiac to set out on our grand adventure in search of whales. While the wind gusted the Georgia Strait into a frenzy, our boats happily ducked into the stunning Southern Gulf Islands, where the water was a lot calmer. We spent some time searching in there before receiving a report that orca had been spotted heading our direction and were almost out of our harbour, so we whipped the boats around to try to find them.
In no time at all, we had found the whales, and it was our favourite dynamic duo, Jude and Roswell! Jude is a whale we are fortunate to know very well, as he spends significant time in the Nanaimo area each year. Roswell, however, is not typically a common whale in this area, but luckily for him, his buddy Jude has been showing him around for the last couple of weeks, and we’ve felt very fortunate to get to know him in that time.
T049A2 Jude ♂ (2007)
T051 Roswell/Loner ♂ (~1981)
While Roswell and Jude don’t always travel together, they are old friends and were even once famously trapped in an Alaskan lake before (read more about this here). But the question remains, are Jude and Roswell more than just old buddies? Could they even be related…?
Every Transient orca in the population has a government-assigned identification number, and we can use these IDs to track matrilineal relationships across generations. Take Jude, for example. His ID is T049A2, which tells us that his mom is T049A and his Grandma is T049, the 49th Transient Killer Whale catalogued in the entire population. We know who Jude’s mother is because he was documented as a calf by her side, but because individuals didn’t start being documented until the 70’s and 80’s, sometimes we get older whales for which we aren’t entirely sure where they fit into the familial puzzle, like T051.
Photo: Photo-identification Catalogue, Population Status, and Distribution of Bigg’s Killer Whales known from Coastal Waters of British Columbia, Canada. Towers, Et al. 2019.
Roswell is around 45 years old and the 51st Transient Orca to be catalogued. This means that he was already an older individual when he first appeared in the 1999 Transient Killer whale catalogue (pictured below). Looking at his first official catalogue photo, you will likely notice that he is considered part of the T049 group, meaning he is likely closely related to Jude, potentially even an uncle!
Photo: Transients: Mammal-Hunting Killer Whales by John Ford and Graeme Ellis
It’s been such a treat to get to know Roswell over the past couple of weeks, and it has been particularly fun trying to unravel the mystery of why he and Jude are so close! While hanging out with the boys was lovely, we also got to see several other animals on our tour today, including bald eagles, river otters, California sea lions, a single Steller sea lion, Steller’s jays and cormorants. If you’d like to see the pictures from today's incredible tour, taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Jordan Robinson, you can check them out below!
Roswell coming up for a breath. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Did you know every eyepatch is unique, even from left to right on the same orca? This is Roswell! Photo by Aly Kohlman
One of the way we can ID the orcas is by looking for notches on their dorsal fins. Can you see Roswell’s? Photo by Aly Kohlman
The scars on an orcas saddle patch can help us ID individuals. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Jude has a noticeble bend in his dorsal fin making him one of the easier whales to ID in the population. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Roswell surfacing in front of the Gabriola bluffs. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Jude surfacing in front of the Gabriola bluffs. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Roswell lifting his rostrum out of the water. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Jude showing off his entire saddle patch! Photo by Aly Kohlman
Jude bringing his whole eyepatch out of the water. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Jude and Roswell surfacing together. Photo by Jordan Robinson
Jude enjoying some “boy time”. Photo by Jordan Robinson
Roswell with a nice surface. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A male California sea lion enjoying a nice scratch. Photo by Aly Kohlman
This Steller’s sea lion was recently entangled. While the scars will likely last a lifetime, luckily it appears that he is no longer entangled. Photo by Aly Kohlman
A California sea lion soaking up the sun. Photo by Jordan Robinson
Jostling for the best spot on the log booms. Photo by Jordan Robinson
The blond bump on the California Sea lions head is called a sagittal crest. Photo by Jordan Robinson
Bald eagle soaring over head. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A young gull set for take off. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A double crested cormorant carrying nesting material. Photo by Aly Kohlman
Nesting cormorants. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A lovely shot of the Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Jordan Robinson
Guests on the back of Kula in Northumberland channel. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A mudgekin holding the whale flag which signifies that there are whales in the area and that boats should slow down. Photo by Jordan Robinson
A boat coming through Dodd narrows. Photo by Jordan Robinson
The hullo ferry heading to Nanaimo. Photo by Jordan Robinson