While whale watching on the Salish Sea, you never know what you might find, and today’s tour proved that to us. We had all three of our vessels heading out for the morning, spreading out to cover more ground as they searched. Since none of the whales in the area have any trackers or tags, we never know when or where they might turn up for the day. It keeps things interesting and exciting out there!

We encountered our first whales by surprise as a guest on the open boat, pointing excitedly at the tall black dorsal fins that were breaking through the waves just ahead of us: they had spotted us some orca! The onboard Naturalist Val quickly grabbed her camera, snapped some photos, and was able to confirm that these two were the T030 siblings:

T030A Sequoia ♂ (1986)
T030C Salix ♀ (2005)

Soon, the other boats joined in watching these two travelling together. They were making steady progress to the north when their progress suddenly stalled, and they started milling in the same area off the Gabriola Reefs instead. They likely came across a snack and were taking the time to split it and socialize. Anytime a transient orca makes a kill, they will share it, which helps keep the entire matriline strong while also maintaining the important social bonds within the matriline. Although these two don’t look like a typical orca pod, they would have been part of one until their mom's passing in 2023, when they travelled with her. Since then, this sibling duo has stuck together and continued to do quite well.

We enjoyed our time with them before it came time to eventually leave them to their meal, and we continued on our way.

The two open boats continued south towards Porlier Pass, where they spotted a pair of humpback whales, while the covered boat headed north, searching for some whales of their own. While the semi-covered boat only saw one shy humpback that they weren’t able to identify, the pair the open boats got to spend time with were a little more active at the surface. At first, there were three in close quarters: Chi (BCZ0575), Sherwina (BCY0961) and her calf (BCY0961calf2026), but then Chi went off on his own, and so did the other two. Interestingly, it seemed the young calf was trying to entertain itself at the surface soon after mom started making longer feeding dives, and it did so in a spectacular way! This little baby was playfully flinging itself out of the water in a behaviour known as breaching. While there are a few theories as to why this might happen, in this case we think it was just for fun, since this young calf did it repeatedly while Sherwina was feeding below the surface. Once mom reappeared, the calf seemed to be called over, and the two continued on their way as usual. At that point, our boats started heading back towards Nanaimo.

It was a great day spent with all these whales, and a great reminder that every day spent on the Salish Sea is unique. Please enjoy the photos taken below by the Marine Naturalists Val Watson (open boat), Hayleigh Hilbert (open boat) and Evan Hessels (Semi-covered boat).

August 6, 2026, 10:30 AM - Spending time with the T030 Siblings 🌲 plus Sherwina and her new calf!