The Orcas and the Porpoise

What a glorious afternoon! Well not exactly wonderful for the porpoise … but great for us.

Earlier this year I signed up with Prince of Whales (yes, really), Vancouver, for the last whale watching trip for the day from Granville Island. My idea was that if we were to find whales out there, the crew will be less likely to be in an immense hurry to come back. And so it was!

Having arrived in Vancouver yesterday, it was good to get out in the fresh air and sunshine. I took a taxi to Granville Island a little earlier than needed – it’s a big tourist spot with a fun market - food, flowers and clothes , as well as tourist shops with those trinkets that seem to flourish across the world.

I sat at the dock watching small boats come and go, the sun sparkling off the water, with the city of Vancouver rising high behind the shoreline. What is it that adds beauty to cities that are built around harbours and bays?

At last it was time to board the boat. It was a good size – and even with 73 passengers, it all worked well. The crew told us that orca had been sighted across the Strait of Georgia towards Vancouver Island. A hot cup of tea went down very well indeed as we powered in that direction. I was on the stern deck, so that I could go from side to side depending on where the orca would be.

After about 40 minutes, we slowed down and started to manoeuvre amongst some other boats that had gathered in the area. And there they were, a pod of 4 “transient” orca – these generally form smaller groups led by a female (often the grandmother) and they roam over larger areas than “resident” orca. It’s hard to count them when they’re not all lined up – there seemed to be at least 3 that were adult size, and one quite small.

[As an aside, all orca are toothed whales that hunt and eat mammals including dolphins, seals, marine birds, other whales and porpoises. Humpbacks, minke, blue & fin whales, and southern wrights, are baleen whales, filter feeders that eat small fish (anchovies, herring and krill)].

As we watched the prca diving, blowing and splashing around, we could see a small porpoise heading away from the pod. The pod disappeared, we lost sight of the porpoise, and then they all reappeared. Near the orca, the porpoise looked so very small and vulnerable – but for a while it was out in front, swimming through the water, trying to get away. It had been quite fast when we arrived, but after being chased for more than 30-40 minutes, it was tiring. The unanswerable question was whether the pod was teaching the young orca how to hunt, or were they just playing with the porpoise and hunting it down.

We watched as the lead female orca (“mum/grandmum”) came up to the surface with her face visible, her head almost fully out of the water. The young one was rarely out in front, and was either beside the mother and slightly behind, or shepherded between other larger animals.

As they moved around, so did we – at one point I thought I saw the large female come to the surface with the porpoise across its snout. Yes I have a photo, but it’s not the sharpest one I took today ☹. Since we didn’t see the porpoise again, I suspect it became “lunch.”

Soon after that we saw the “mum/grandmum” spy-hopping – bringing it’s head out of the water vertically while it looked around to see where we all were. At one point the pod came close by, one slapping its tail on the surface of the water. Oh what a wonderful sight!

But all too soon it was time to move on – the rules of whale watching in this area include not staying with a pod for more than an hour.

I’d never spent so much time watching orca so close to the waterline – a very, very special time. As we moved away, I turned to the naturalist that was standing nearby, and with a big smile asked “now for some humpbacks?” She reminded me that it’s really, really hard to find them in this part of the world. Still you never know!

On our way back to Vancouver, I stayed in the same spot on the stern, and a short while later we changed direction. Word was out that the captain had seen humpbacks a fair way away - and there they were, way off in the distance, breaching, tail slapping and splashing. There were 2 pairs of 2 and one on its own. We came close enough to get a good view, and some nice photos of the tail flukes of a pair that were purposefully heading towards Vancouver Island.

All too soon, it was time for us to make our way back to Vancouver city. What a glorious afternoon of whale watching, and a fun way to get ready for the wild animals that we’re about to see in and around the Great Bear Rainforest – including whales!

Some photos from today at this LINK.