The family of orphan orca, Brave Little Hunter, paid an unexpected visit to Victoria’s Inner Harbour on Oct. 3. But sadly there was no sign of the famous calf, which has been surviving alone in the wild after escaping from a tidal lagoon off northwest Vancouver Island in late April.
The pod of five orcas, identified as T109As, including Brave Little Hunter’s grandmother, were caught on camera by former whale-watching tour operator Jackie Cowan, who lives on her boat in the harbour.
With her background in whale-watching and a previous career working with Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, Cowan is used to spending hours on open waters. But 2024 has been a year mostly spent watching the marine action while working from home, sitting behind a computer screen.
“It's really been kind of sucking my soul just being sedentary and not being out there,” said Cowan. “I had been sitting there that day, really depressed, because it's the longest time I've gone without being on the water seeing whales. I was sat lamenting that, and then literally stepped out onto my deck, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, they came to me’. I thought I was dreaming.”
The whale lover has lived on her boat in the harbour for 12 years. While she has seen orcas in the harbour before, it has always been her dream to experience the thrill of having a pod visit her home.
"I had been staring out at the harbour for years, waiting for this moment,” she said. “I was vibrating all over.”
Cowan watched the pod for over a minute, before they dived in front of her boat, resurfacing later across the harbour by Laurel Point. Describing the encounter, she remembers how eerily quiet the harbour was, with only a handful of other witnesses to the magical moment.
“There was no trying to elbow through people to get a good spot,” she said. “Part of the experience is hearing the blows, so it was great to have no noise, no screaming, just me and the whales.”
Brave Little Hunter captured the hearts of people around the world when she was left stranded in a lagoon near Zeballos for over a month, after her pregnant mother died when she became stranded on a rocky beach.
Since her escape, it has been hoped the calf would eventually reunite with her family. According to Bay Cetology, a team of marine biologists and research technicians based out of Alert Bay, who have been tracking the movement of Brave Little Hunter, the calf has so far only been documented alone, in the waters around Nootka Island every month through to August.
If Cowan is lucky enough to see the T109A pod again, she hopes she will see them with Brave Little Hunter in tow.
“That would be amazing,” she says.
