The sun shone overhead as we had our guests and crew board our vessels and get ready for their exploration of the Salish Sea. Each day of looking for wildlife is a fresh start, since none of the whales in our area have any tracking or tagging systems in place. We head out and begin the search for each tour, not knowing exactly where we might end up or what we'll find.

Today, we decided to head south to start our day, since the Southern Gulf Islands provide not just beautiful scenery but also a high chance of coming across whales and other wildlife. We didn’t make it that far today, though, before we came across the T101s.

T101 Reef ♀ (≤1969)
T101B Lagoon ♂ (1997)

They were travelling northbound through Dodd Narrows, a narrow tidal passageway that can have a lot of current running through it when the tides are changing. This current mixes the water column, introducing more oxygen and nutrients to the area and increasing its biodiversity and productivity. This may have been what brought the T101s here today, although it didn’t keep them here for long.

The T101s were quickly moving north from Dodd, and to our surprise, they aimed directly toward Nanaimo Harbour. It’s not unheard of for whales to enter the harbour like this, especially for the transients. Inside a harbour, there is not only some extra noise that will help disguise their presence from their prey, but also more prey present that might not be paying attention to whales. This might have been what brought in the T101s today, supported by the fact that we saw them staying close to a log boom with a few Harbour Seals hauled out on it. While we didn’t see them hunt successfully today, it was still exciting to watch them swim by in such close quarters to the animals.

Soon after they entered, the T101s left the harbour and ended up retracing their path back towards Dodd Narrows to once again head into the Southern Gulf Islands. It’s tough to guess why the whales would be circling an area like this, but prey availability may be the driving factor for these two. We didn’t get to stay and watch them cross back since our time with them was up, and we headed out to search for other wildlife instead.

We ended up finding some Harbour Seals next. They provided a stark contrast in size, going from watching the massive orca to one of the smallest Marine Mammals found on our coast. Harbour seals grow to about 6 feet long at most and weigh around 150-300 pounds when fully grown. They are very important to the local ecosystem, acting not only as a food source for transient orcas, but also as predators themselves, feeding on a variety of fish species throughout the year. They need to spend some time out of the water to maintain their body temperature, as our cold water works to steal their heat even with their thick blubber and fur. They have favourite spots for doing this, which is why we can find these guys pretty reliably, as long as the tides cooperate.

The next group of pinnipeds that we found are similar, but thanks to their increased mobility on land, the Steller Sea Lions can be found in more unique areas. Today this was the case when we found a group of them hauled out on a Navigational Buoy for the Gabriola Reefs. This buoy is a great spot for the juveniles since it provides a resting spot that isn’t dependent on the tides, and it gets them close to a great feeding area. We saw a large group of them cuddling on this buoy today, which was a fun way to end the tour.

We made our way back towards Nanaimo from here, happy with all the wildlife we found throughout the trip. During these encounters, our onboard Marine Naturalists, Hayleigh Hilbert and Evan Hessels, captured some amazing photos, which you can enjoy below.

August 20, 2026, 10:30 AM - The T101s in Dodd Narrows