Another exciting adventure awaited us in the Salish Sea this afternoon, and it proved that you never know where or when you might find the whales out there.

The trip started with some intel from the morning tour: a couple of hotspots of whales where they had had success earlier in the day, so the plan was to head back in that direction to see if the sighting luck would continue, but before they could get too far, the open boat spotted a pair of blows in the distance, not too far from Entrance Island!

It was a pair of humpback whales travelling together that had caught our eye, and the other boat quickly came over to share this encounter. The two whales seemed to be feeding in the area, both lifting their tails high into the air before diving below the surface in chase of their food. Humpbacks are filter feeders, using the many dense plates of Baleen on the roof of their mouths to filter krill and small schooling fish from the 20,000 L of water they might take in with each mouthful. The humpbacks are here in BC waters for one reason: food! They spend their time here over the summer feeding in our very rich waters, building up their fat reserves which will fuel their migration. While they are travelling from here to their breeding grounds in Hawaii or Mexico, these whales won’t have much food available to them, if any at all, so they get energy from their fat instead. This energy requirement is quite high in the breeding grounds, from travelling to get there to male competition over breeding, to the female's pregnancy and lactation taking its energetic toll. These giants may lose up to 50% of their body weight while migrating south, and then they have to rebuild it each year by feeding here. After hearing about all this energy, it might not surprise you to learn that each day a humpback needs to consume nearly 3,000 pounds of food to restore these reserves to sustainable levels.

This afternoon, the humpbacks that we found taking advantage of the food here were Dalmatian (BCY0994) and Chi (BCZ0575). When we first saw them, these two were travelling in close proximity, but after a few sets of surfaces they parted ways. These sorts of temporary associations are quite common with the humpback whales. As their populations increase, we are seeing them travel together more and more, but it’s just not very consistent. Unlike the orcas, which have tight-knit family groups that travel together consistently, the humpbacks seem to form these associations out of convenience rather than family ties. It has been shown that some of these associations can be long-term, but they're more common in females, especially during pregnancy. With both of these whales confirmed as male, this might explain the shorter time they spent together here.

When they split up, our boats split with them, with the semi-covered boat sticking with Dalmatian, and the open boat sticking with Chi. Both continued travelling along, switching more to travel mode instead of feeding mode. At one point, Chi even grew slightly curious about the boat, raising his rostrum beside them for a moment before continuing on his way.

From here, both boats decided to continue their search across the Strait of Georgia, aiming for a well-known haul-out site along the Sunshine Coast known as the White Islets. Here, we found an abundance of wildlife, the first of which were the giant Steller Sea Lions hauled out on the rocks. These are the largest sea lion species in the world, with males reaching an impressive 2,500 pounds and females up to around 800 pounds. This difference in morphology between the two sexes is known as Sexual Dimorphism and is quite common across the animal kingdom. In this case, it likely arose from the competitive nature of these animals. Males will defend territory on the beaches, collecting females in the area to breed with. The bigger the male, the more likely he is to hold that territory against the advances of other males. They fight by attacking each other's necks and slamming their massive necks together, so the thicker fur and blubber can act as protection for the males. The blubber layer has a secondary function as well, since they can use it for energy during this period. If you are defending territory, you can’t exactly leave it unattended to go off and fish, so males might go up to two months without eating during breeding season.

While there are many rookeries along the Pacific Northwest that they could potentially be headed to, most of the ones we have cross-matched with brands have been from Oregon, so we think it’s likely that a high concentration of these sea lions will be headed there soon, as we are only a feeding ground for them. We actually spotted one of these branded sea lions today and were able to cross-match that brand to Rouge Reef in Oregon, supporting this theory. She was branded back in 2013, making her at least 13 years old. IN addition to the Steller Sea Lions, on the north side of the Island we also spotted some of the smallest pinnipeds in the area: the Harbour Seals. These little rock sausages were also spending their time hauled out on the rocky shore, but they have to be more picky about where they go due to the limited mobility of their flippers. Unlike sea lions, which can fully rotate their flippers and prop themselves up on them to walk, seals’ hips are fused, so their movement looks more like doing the worm than walking. This means they need places with a shallower slope to the rocks so they can get out of the water more easily. While there were lots of pinnipeds here, there was also lots of interesting activity from the birds, with Cormorants striking their poses on the rocks, Gulls tending to their nests, and even some oyster catchers flying by making a lot of noise. It was very entertaining to watch!

From here, both boats crossed the strait once more, aiming towards the west side of Gabriola Island, to a spot called the Gabriola Bluffs. It was here that we saw even more birds that nest along the towering sandstone cliffs. Most notable were the Cormorants, who nest in the cracks and crevices here, using their guano (aka poop) to cement it into place. Watching carefully, you could also spot some cliff swallows flying in and out of their own nests, taking advantage of the small caves in the cliffs. Finally, the bluffs ended with an overhang that showed off the different types of erosion these cliffs face, from the most obvious, caused by wave action, to the less obvious honeycombing left by groundwater seeping through the rocks, causing erosion of its own.

Now the plan was to head back to the Harbour from here, but just as we were pointing our bow that direction, a report came in of a pod of orca not too far away, so we decided to try our luck searching south for those. After searching the calm waters for a while, we eventually spotted them in the distance: the tall black dorsal fin of the orca! Our Naturalists quickly pulled out their cameras, snapped some photos, and identified these three as the T101s.

T101 Reef ♀ (≤1969)
T101A Rush ♂ (1993)
T101B Lagoon ♂ (1997)

This pod is always exciting to see, thanks to Rush and Lagoon being such big, impressive boys, and T101 Reef is quite impressive as well. When we first found these whales, they seemed to be resting, moving slowly at the surface in a group, but then they suddenly turned and spread out, likely starting to travel in search of food along the way. As transient orcas, these three will be looking for other marine mammals to snack on, usually Harbour Seals, but sea lions and other smaller cetaceans may also make their menu.

Conditions were beautiful, as were the whales, but since we were running out of time on the tour, we had to leave the T101s to their travels and head back towards Nanaimo. The surprise encounter left us feeling lucky to have seen them, and it was a great reminder that you never know when or where you might find whales during a trip! Please enjoy the photos taken throughout the trip by Marine Naturalists Val Watson and Jordan Robinson.

July 6, 2026, 3:30 PM - Chi, Dalmatian, and a last minute look at the T101s