T103s, T49s

Transient orca calf
With prey in mouth
Race Rocks, B.C.
Oct. 31, 2009
Photo by Andrew Lees


Transient Orca
T49 pod
Race Rocks, B.C.
Oct. 31, 2009
Photo by
Andrew Lees

Transient Orca T103
Race Rocks, B.C.
Oct. 31, 2009
Photo by
Andrew Lees

Oct. 31
Happy Halloween! We set out at 2.00 pm today (10/31) for our final tour of the 2009 season and what a magnificent tour it turned out to be :)
After already having had encounters with a Seal, a Sealion and very active Dall's Porpoise, we found T103 & T49's off Race Rocks. Regards,
Andrew Lees, Marine Naturalist, Five Star Whale Watching

Oct. 31
T49's (3) and T103 off Race this afternoon (10/31). Something was good for a late lunch (see photo of the day!). Hope all had a good Halloween
Ron Bates, MMRG, Victoria B.C.

T049s, T103

Oct. 28
T103 was off Victoria again today this time with the T049A, T049A1, and T049A2. They spent all afternoon milling around between Race Rocks and Constance Bank.
Mark Malleson, Prince of Whales, Victoria B.C.

T103

Transient orca T103
skulking around the Steller Sealion colony
at Race Rocks B.C.
Oct. 27, 3009
Photo by Mark Malleson

Oct. 27
T103 was first spotted off of Victoria this morning heading west. I left him west of Race Rocks heading south west in the Juan de Fuca Strait at 1415.
Mark Malleson, Prince of Whales, Victoria

T36s, T46s, T99s

Transient Orcas
Bowen Island
Oct. 24, 2009
Photo by Joan Lopez
Photo taken with a 300mm zoom lens

Oct. 24
After a long search, we finally caught up to a group of Transient Orcas that had been reported off Nanaimo at 9:30 AM. They were eventually located on the west side of of Bowen Island at approximately 3:00 PM. I have Id'ed 9 seperate individuals from photos, 3 of them calves. A photo, taken with a 300mm zoom lens, that shows 8 individuals is attached. Whales IDed are T36, T36B, a calf that surfaced consistently beside T36B, T46B plus a calf that surfaced with T46B, T46B1, T99, T99A and T99B. Photos of the calves will be sent to the Centre for Whale Research and to DFO. These T's were last seen heading east into Howe Sound along the northwest side of Bowen Island.
Joan Lopez, Naturalist, Vancouver Whale Watch Mark Malleson, Prince of Whales, Victoria B.C.

Oct. 24
Marlin Hansen who operates a Water Taxi in Howe Sound called Orca Network to report a pod of 7 orcas in Collingwood Channel near Keats Island from 4 - 7 pm He has never observed orcas in this area before.


Transient orca calf
Bowen Island, B.C.
Oct. 24, 3009
Photo by Gary Sutton


Oct. 24
Orca!! It's been a while since I've seen some orca and finally today after a lot of searching we found a group of transients off of Bowen Island, BC. There were 9 or 10 whales but no adult males, a few females and 4 calves! I managed to ID two of them so far as T36 and T36B. They were mostly just traveling along Bowen island, with the calves trying to chase a seal every now and then. Here are a couple pictures. The first was one of the young whales trying to catch up to the rest after chasing a seal for a bit (see photo above). The second picture has the Vancouver skyline in the background which makes for a pretty cool backdrop (see below) . Hope you like them! Cheers,
Gary Sutton, Wild Whales Vancouver

Transient orcas - T36s, with Vancouver, B.C. in the background
Oct. 24, 2009
Photo by Gary Sutton





Oct. 24
Transients: 5-6 off Bowen island Howe Sound, N.W. of Vancouver BC. mid afternoon.
Ron Bates, MMRG, Victoria, B.C.

T87, T88

Transient orcas
T88 & T87
Race Rocks, B.C.
Oct. 19, 2009
Photo by
Marie O'Shaughnessy

Oct. 19
The Ocean Magic at 12.15pm today Oct 19th picked up two Transient Orca whose ID were T 87, the male and T 88 , the female (see above photo). They were spotted east of Race Rocks and south of Victoria near Constance Bank. They had just made a kill before we arrived so we didn't see any real aggressive foraging behaviours while were with them. They were milling around for a while with fairly long dives and then they headed west toward Race Rocks. We didn't see any Humpbacks nor Porpoise on this trip - perhaps word was out that ' Transients ' were back in town. We did however see, several groups of sea lions cruising around which, for all intents and purposes the two Transients ignored.
Marie,Orca-Magic, Prince Of Whales, Victoria.

T55

No orcas present.

The T55s were reported in johnstone Strait this morning.
Helena
02 Oct 2009 10:50:57 PDT