Recent Sightings

May 23rd was a sunny day with a slight chop when we headed out in search of whales. After searching for a little while, we came across a humpback called “Incognito” near Porlier Pass. We use a combination of the dorsal fin, the pattern and the trailing edge of the fluke to identify individual humpback whales. These beautiful animals were hunted to the brink of extinction and it’s only been in the past 5-10 years that we’ve seen a tremendous exponential growth of the population locally in the Salish Sea. Keta Coastal Conservation is a local non-profit that has been researching the return of these humpbacks to the Salish Sea.

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May 22nd was a beautiful day as we headed out in our two vessels Cascadia and Kula. We had a report of a humpback whale near the Hudson Rocks Ecological Reserve close to home and later got a report of Transient Killer Whales as we were heading out near Northumberland Channel. We found the T46B’s here who were moving quite fast there.

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Whales, whales everywhere! Cascadia had come across what we call a “T-Party”, which is when multiple pods of Bigg’s/transient orca join together and socialize. Typically killer whales will travel in their family pod which is led by the oldest female, the matriarch, and followed by her offspring and their offspring. However, killer whales are incredibly social animals and will often join up with other pods to mate, socialize and hunt. It’s always a good day when we catch a large a group like this socializing!

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The T123’s do some seal hunting in Porlier Pass on May 14th.

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The T123’s were traveling slowly and close together, making for some beautiful photographs and peaceful moments. The leader of this pod, the matriarch, is T123 “Sidney”, a mother of three who was born around 1985. Even though she’s the oldest and leads the pod, it’s her son Stanley, T123A, that usually steals the show with his giant dorsal fin. A full grown male orca’s fin can get up to 6 feet tall! Stanley was born in the year 2000 and his fin has a distinct notch about 1/3 of the way down.

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This large group of transient killer whales was what we affectionately call a “T-Party” - a large group of marine mammal-hunting killer whales composed of multiple pods who are usually not seen traveling together. There were 12+ whales in this superpod, from about 6 different small matriarchal pods. Some of the whales we identified from our photos were the T18’s, T36’s, T46B’s (no Tl’uk), T63 & T65, T100’s, T46C2 and T125A & T128, and possibly more!

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On May 8th, we set out in search of whales on our open boat Cascadia. During our search for whales, we first found some Steller sea lions and a bald eagle hunting! We also found Hammer in Stuart Channel.

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On May 2nd, our open boat Cascadia and our semi-covered Kula set off in search of whales. The weather was sunny and the water was super smooth making it a perfect day for whale watching. Cascadia found a young humpback called Hammer hanging around Thetis Island.

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The first day of May was a great one as we headed out into the calm waters of this sunny day. We set out south towards the Gulf Islands to find our whales for the day. As we were looking for the whales, we came across a huge diversity of wildlife. We came across harbour seals, sea lions and a young humpback called Hammer.

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A family of six Bigg’s killer whales nicknamed the T49A pod. Head of the pod is matriarch T049A “Nan” and following her are her 5 offspring T049A1 “Noah”, T049A2 “Judy”, T049A3 “Nat”, T049A4, and T049A5.

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Breaching Humpback Whale!

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It was another beautiful sunny day as our boat Cascadia left the dock in search of whales. Following a report up north, we encountered a pod fo 4 orcas near Nanoose, around Amelia Island. Three of these whales were members of the T49B matriline, which includes matriarch T49B “Van” and her offspring T49B2 “Skyler” and T49B3 “Charchar”.

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Our crew and guests headed out of Nanaimo at 12pm and followed a report up north along the eastern shore of Vancouver Island. Around Qualicum Bay we encountered approximately 8 orca, from a couple a different pods.

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On April 19th, we travelled across the Strait of Georgia to find the T49A’s and T49B’s at Gibson’s Harbour near the Sunshine Coasts.

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On April 17th we set sail with clear skies and high hopes. We traveled out into the Strait, doing a large loop infront of Nanaimo scanning the waters. We made a stop at Entrance Island to see all the Stellar Sea Lions, and a few California Sea Lions. After leaving we went back into the Strait, heading towards the shores of Vancouver.

After traveling south through the Strait we passed through Active Pass and headed through the Gulf Islands to the East side of Sidney Island. There we found our 10 Orcas, the T124A’s and the T124D’s.

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A sunny Day south of Howe Sound with the T49A’s.

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What a gorgeous day! It was a little breezy but the sun was shining and the Salish Sea was teaming with life. We found sea lions, seals, a humpback whale, and orca!

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April 11th was a beautiful day out in the water and we were lucky enough to find Killer Whales at Neck Point!

Transient Killer Whale pods can join up like this to hunt together and socialize. It also gives the opportunity for a male and female of different pods to mate.

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This was a great trip out on the water where we saw plenty of wildlife including Bald eagles, sea lions, seals, and finished the trip off with the T018’s. The T018’s are a pod of 4 consisting of three generations!

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