Northern Vancouver Island Part 2: A Whale Watch to Remember

On September 4th we headed out on a whale watch out of Telegraph Cove, and with lots of recent whale reports and flat-calm waters I was hopeful for a great trip. Now I have been on a lot of whale watch trips over the years, both while traveling, while working as a naturalist for 6 years, and while riding along with friends from here on San Juan Island. In terms of wildlife and whale encounters, there have been some pretty great trips, but this one definitely ranks among the top few that I have ever experienced. Over the course of just three hours we saw transients, Northern Residents, humpback whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall's porpoise, and Steller sea lions!

As we headed out of the harbor we were making our way down Johnstone Strait towards a report of Northern Residents when I spotted a small killer whales along the shoreline across the strait. (This would actually be one of three times on this trip I found killer whales with no reports or other indication that they were in the area! While I often go out looking for whales, it's usually following up on another sighting, and it has been years since I spotted whales totally unexpectedly. For it to happen three times on this single trip to Vancouver Island was crazy!)

This trio of orcas turned out to be the T69Ds, who are rare visitors to the Salish Sea but who I coincidentally met for the first time earlier this year when they were with the T90s in Haro Strait back in February. As would be the case for all the transients we encountered while up north, their behavior was quite different than we typically see today from Ts around the San Juan Islands, and more like what they used to be like 10-20 years ago: long dives with sporadic/unpredictable surfacings, making them hard to track and view. After one dive, however, they unexpectedly popped up close to the boat, giving us a nice look after a lot of patiently scanning the water.

T69D

By this time the Northern Residents were within sight to the south of us, and the T69Ds had likely heard them as well, because they did a 180 to head back in the direction they came and we continued on our way towards the Residents. We had heard the whales were spread out in ones and twos doing long foraging dives, but we got on scene, several of the small groups merged, and we were treated to an amazing sight of 15+ whales traveling in a tight group and surfacing all together.

I would later learn these were the I4s, I65s, and G27s - all new-to-me whales - and just a fraction of the whales who were "in" that day. Also around (and some of whom we got distant looks of) were at least the A42s, I16s, I27s, and I35s.

We used to the Southern Residents like this more often, though in recent years they tend to spread out a lot more. It was hard not to keep taking photos, as regardless of how much you see it, that many dorsal fins at the surface together is a breath-taking sight.

The whales split into two groups as we followed them around the eastern side of Hanson Island:

We had the light against us when viewing the whales from the left side, and my Northern Resident ID guide only shows left sides, so it was tough to piece together many individual IDs. The only adult male in the group was 22 year-old male I76, seen here with another sprouter - maybe I122?

I76 on the left

If you follow orcas in the region, you know about the iconic Orca Lab on Hanson Island - it was pretty cool to get to see Northern Residents go by there!

Northern Residents passing Orca Lab

We left the Northern Residents heading west through Blackfish Sound and went north through the narrow passage between Swanson and Crease Islands. No matter which way you turn up there, the scenery is awesome! There are so many little islands and channels to explore.

Next up we spent some time with some humpbacks, with easily half a dozen or more individuals spread out in the same area.

As we slowly started transiting back towards Telegraph Cove, it was a scene I will never forget. The Northern Residents were back in view, there were still humpbacks in every direction, and some Pacific white-sided dolphins came by as well. I felt like I was dreaming, with multiple species of cetacean surrounding us. 

It was an unforgettable whale watch, and we returned to the dock beaming, immediately making plans to go out on the water again before the end of our trip. I made a conscious effort to try and lock the scene and the emotion inside me - the joy, the excitement, the peace of being in such a place and having such an experience. You can't bottle it, but it's moments like those that rejuvenate the spirit and keep you going through things like whale politics, dreary winter days, and stressful times at work.

October Whales: Always a Surprise

We always say the peak whale-watching season in the San Juan Islands lasts through September. Once October hits, it seems we never really know what to expect. Sometimes the residents stay around still on almost a daily basis, and other times they become scarce almost as soon as the calendar changes. This year, in early October, we had J-Pod and part of K-Pod hanging around. On October 4th, I got to Lime Kiln just in time to see the second half of the group go north.

From left to right: J47 Notch, J22 Oreo, and J38 Cookie

J34 Doublestuf

As the whales continued north, I was surprised by not one, but two, small groups of Pacific white-sided dolphins, or Lags. We've had small numbers of these guys around for much of the summer, and occasionally large groups of up to a hundred or more. They tend to be more common a bit further north in the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait, but if they start hanging around here more often I don't think anyone will complain! These guys are awesome.

Pacific white-sided dolphins - photo taken from shore at Lime Kiln!

The next day, October 5th, I was hoping to catch the Js and Ks again as they made their way back south from the Fraser River. Unfortunately, I *just* missed them, and only got to see K21 Cappuccino head by as the last whale way offshore. Lucky for me, a few hours later, a neighbor gave me a head's up about a pair of humpback whales that might be visible from a park near my home on the other side of the island.

The humpbacks were doing very long dives, at least 10-12 minutes, and after seeing them once in the distance, I thought they had disappeared out of sight. While waiting, I saw a minke whale:

Then, the pair of humpbacks came up and started breaching and tail-lobbing! They were far away, but it's always an impressive sight to see an animal like that launch itself out of the water:

Add to the list the harbor porpoises I saw, and that's a 5 cetacean species weekend - not too shabby!

As you can see from the above photos, the weather has also turned. It's still pretty pleasantly warm, but we've definitely switched to mostly gray skies with some bouts of rain. While I'll still of course be keeping an eye out for whales, it's been more than a week since I've seen them, so it's time to start switching over to doing a bit more bird-watching as well. A couple of off-island trips before the end of the year will hopefully help me close in on my year list goal of 200 species - right now I'm sitting at 185! I've also got to make sure I stay ahead of Dave in our year list challenge as he's inched his way up to 173 species! :)

Oh yes, one more photo to share, this one from October 1st while watching orcas milling offshore - this little curious harbor seal, I'm assuming a pup from this year due to his small size, definitely stole the show. It spent the better part of an hour watching us on the rocks from all angles!

September 11 and 13: New Baby L120 and Another Lime Kiln Morning

As is typical for September, members of all three pods have been traveling together. They've been coming and going regularly in and out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, spending a day or two here and then going out west for a day. I made an early morning of it before work on Thursday, September 11 on the west side. I met up with some other hopeful whale waiters, but unfortunately there were no orcas on the west side. The trip out there was not for naught, however (it never is). I saw both Vaux's (181) and black swifts (182), finally adding some birds to the year list, which had been stagnant since July!

The whales did turn up late morning heading towards the south end of San Juan Island, so I went back to the west side for lunch. Bingo! My timing was right on. I saw some whales heading north towards Lime Kiln, and assumed they were probably Js, who are usually in the lead. Then the guy next to me on the rock, who was looking through binoculars, said, "There is a very small whale in there..." Could it be?! Yes! It was new baby L120 and family!

L120 next to L86 Surprise

J49 has been the "baby" of the community for some time now, but he's over two years old. It's been a while since I've seen such a young calf - it was noticeably a very tiny killer whale!

L120's tiny dorsal fin is visible against mama's saddle patch

As has been the case seemingly since L120 was born, probable aunt L27 Ophelia was right by the little one's side as well. The rest of the family was close by, too.

They got up just past Lime Kiln, then turned and went back south, so we got to see the little one twice! 

Can't get enough of these baby pictures, even if the lighting wasn't the best!

Right before the Ls turned south, another whale came just up to the kelp at the south end of Lime Kiln. I couldn't tell who it was because I only saw her head-on, but I heard from a friend who was further south that it was J2 Granny! She got close enough that I could see her saddle patch underwater, and she literally came right up to the edge of the kelp then turned around under water and went back south.

A whale, reportedly J2 Granny, approaches - then turned around underwater within sight of the rocks and went back south

The whales stayed south the rest of the day then swung out west on the 12th, but again were heading back in by Friday evening. There was a book signing in town where many whale lovers were debating when the whales would arrive on the west side. That night before dark? Would they go north during the night? First thing in the morning? I told several people (somewhat tongue in cheek) that my gut feeling was the would be at Lime Kiln at 7 AM. Backing up my belief, I was out at Lime Kiln at 6:45. (Side note: I realize I'm probably in the minority of people who set their alarm earlier on weekends than on weekdays....)

The view of Mt. Rainier to the south was one of the clearest I have ever seen from the island (the picture doesn't quite do it justice):

Mt. Rainier - 130 miles away!

I was looking through binoculars, partly to look at the mountain and partly to scan for whales. Hmm, did I just imagine a dorsal fin? I kept looking.....did I just imagine another? Then a whale breached, erasing any doubts! There they were! I looked at my "watch" (phone): 7:01 AM! And no one else believed me - there was only one other person in the park! (Disclaimer: I'm not usually right when I predict the whales, but if you predict enough, you've gotta be right sometime!)

L87 Onyx in the lead, with J2 Granny right behind

Following Granny and Onyx were Shachi and Eclipse, then the J14s. It's so peaceful to be out there for moments like these! Well worth getting up early for:

There was a little gap between this group and the J16s, who came next. Inshore of the whales it looked like there were a few Dall's porpoise....but they looked a little different. Turns out it was three lags! (Pacific white-side dolphins are often called lags as an abbreviation of their genus, Lagenorhynchus, maybe because their common name is such a mouthful?)

Lags are common further north in BC but for some reason we rarely see them in the San Juans, though there have been quite a few sightings of 1-3 animals this summer. I've seen lags in BC, but this was my first time seeing them in the San Juans, so I was pretty excited! They're one of the only things that could entice me to look away from the orcas!

Three lags in Haro Strait

Lags have two speeds: fast, and faster. They zig-zagged this way and that, and actually came fairly close to shore!

The distinct rounded dorsal fin of a Pacific white-sided dolphin - both our porpoise species have more triangular fins

For some reason, locally lags seem to like to harass the orcas, or at least it looks that way as they buzz around the whales like flies. Particularly the adult males; I've heard of L95 Nigel, L85 Mystery, and L87 Onyx all being tailed by a lag in recent months. These guys were just swimming along paralleling the orcas....

J26 Mike in the background, lags in the foreground

....but when J26 Mike surfaced, they made a 90 degree turn and headed straight for him!!!

Three lags speed towards Mike

He proceeded to go down on a long dive - we didn't see him again for something like seven minutes, and the lags proceeded on their way north. So cool to see a little bit of inter-species interaction, even if we have no idea what it means!

More whales were visible to the south, and would remain so for the next several hours, but they never came up north. The J16s were the last whales to actually pass Lime Kiln, rounding out J-Pod Group A and continuing north.

J36 Alki

I'm just in love with being out at Lime Kiln early in the morning. The sightings have been fantastic, and I know such mornings are limited before it gets too dark and cold to hang out there! The lighting is so magical, no matter what you're looking at.

California gull

Johnstone Strait - Northern Resident Orcas and Dolphins

As we pulled out of Campbell River on Saturday, August 27th we went across to Quadra Island to pick up a few more guests. On the rocks near the dock several harbor seals were lounging:

We started cruising north up Discovery Passage, and I enjoyed watching several hundred Bonaparte's gulls actively feeding on the surface of the water. They swarmed around the boat as we picked up speed.

As we reached the north end of Quadra Island and pulled into Johnstone Strait, we started searching in earnest for killer whales. We were the first boat out for the day, so we didn't know if or when some orcas might pop up, and we didn't know if we might find residents or transients. Some of the other passengers commented that it almost didn't matter if we found any whales - the scenery itself was so beautiful, and it was enough to just sit in the sunshine and soak it all in....

There was a lot more to look at than the scenery, however. Some splashing caught my eye in the distance, and it turned out to be a group of about 20 Pacific white-sided dolphins! While it looked to our naturalist like they were actively foraging, a few still broke off and came over to ride our stern wake. Another one leaped about 8 feet in the air - an amazing sight! After a few minutes, they went back to foraging, and we continued north.

We passed a lot of interesting vessels along the way - ferries, tugs and barges, purse seiners, fishermen, and....I'm not sure exactly how to categorize this one:

We also spotted some Dall's porpoise, but by this time the captain decided not to stop. There was word that some Northern Residents were well to the north, right at the edge of the range they're able to travel on one of their trips, and we were going to go for them. It sounded good to me!

I learned as we approached Cracroft Island that members of A1 Pod were in the area. The Northern Residents, made up of 16 pods and well over 200 whales, are, as their name suggests, sort of the northern counterpart of the Southern Resident population of orcas that I spend most of my time viewing. They're fish eaters, spending the summer and fall in the inside passage along the north end of Vancouver Island feeding on the salmon runs. Despite their close proximity to one another, it's not believed that Northern and Southern Residents interact or interbreed. They seem to have split up the salmon rivers, and stick to their own territory for the most part.

Cruising up Johnstone Strait

 If you've been following my blog for a while you probably know the Southern Residents are J-, K-, and L-Pods. If you're wondering about pods A through I, that's where the Northern Residents come in. Pioneering killer whale researcher Michael Bigg started the first orca photo identification study, and the first whales he saw became "A" Pod up north. The additional Northern Resident pods became B, C, etc, and J, K, and L were the letters by the time he reached the south end of Vancouver Island. Since then, some of the pods have been lumped or split, so there isn't a pod for every letter, and some letters are actually multiple pods. For instance, A1 Pod is just one of three pods with an "A" designation.

I was really intrigued to make connections about the similarities between Northern and Southern residents as our naturalist talked about A1 Pod. He knew their typical traveling routes, just like I do with the Southern Residents, and also their typical association patterns. The first three whales we saw were A12 Scimitar, an elder female who has left her daughter's family to travel with A37 Plumper and A46 Kaikash, two adult males who are her nephews and lost their mother in 2009. It reminds me of L87 Onyx of the Southern Residents, who has linked up with one elder female after another since the passing of his mother. (My friend Katie details Onyx's story beautifully here.) It really underlines how important older females are to resident killer whale communities - without one, adult males often die soon after their mothers.

A46 Kaikash, a 29 year-old member of the A1 Pod

 Scimitar, Plumper, and Kaikash were spread out and foraging off Cracroft Island, just north of the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, a sanctuary for orcas created in 1982 protecting a place of particular cultural importance to the Northern Residents - one of their rubbing beaches. While Southern Residents like to swim through kelp beds, Northern Residents like to rub on round rocks at the bottom of a select few shallow bays. They don't participate in this behavior if disturbed, so boats and land-based visitors are prohibited from Robson Bight. It's an area I first heard about a long time ago, so it was neat to finally see it.

Robson Bight Ecological Reserve

The A34 matriline was just making their way out of the Reserve, so we went over to see them, too, before we left. A34 Simoom is believed to be the daughter of Scimitar, and she has five offspring and three "grand" offspring, making for a total of 9 whales in her matriline. There's one adult male in the group, A55 Echo, and we saw him close into shore, swimming upside down and pec slapping with a younger family member in tow. Two other whales were closer to us. I'm not 100% positive of these IDs, but I think this might be A62 Misty and her six year-old calf A83 Dusky:

All too soon it was time to leave and begin our long journey back south to Campbell River - just south of Hanson Island, we were at about the northern limit for our seven hour trip. On the way home, however, we came across another group of about 10 Pacific white-sided dolphins. These guys were even more playful than the first group we saw, coming closer to the boat. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the encounter:

A Pacific white-sided dolphin surfacing just off our stern wake

One dolphin liked to clear the water on each of his surfacings. That resulted in this image - with the dorsal fin of one dolphin in the center, and the tail of the dolphin in front of him visible on the right.

I took a short video clip that maybe I'll upload at some point, too. Needless to say, it took a while for the smile to leave my face after this amazing dolphin encounter! The whole trip was a huge success, and I saw both of my "hoped for" species - Northern Resident orcas and Pacific white-sided dolphins.

Finally, I just want to say that as someone who has worked as a marine naturalist on a whale-watching boat for six years, I was really impressed with the job done by the folks at Discovery Marine Safaris, who we went out with. Their respect for the wildlife was apparent, and our naturalist Mark was one of the best in the business based on what I've seen over the years. He presented information that was accurate and relevant, and he did so in an engaging manner. He talked about residents and transients, the amazing social lives of killer whales, acoustic dialects, the live capture era, and also important conservation issues relating to salmon, pollutants, and boats, and he did so in a concisely while encouraging everyone on board to take actions to help at home. I was really impressed! I definitely picked up a few things that I could use to make my talks about orcas more interesting. So, if you find yourself wanting to go whale-watching out of Campbell River, check out these guys - you've got my recommendation!