Photos by Frank Lin
The beginning of May was an exciting time for whale watching in Vancouver waters. From a visiting grey whale to the passage of several transient orca pods in and out of the Lions Gate Bridge, where they were visible from the northern Stanley Park Seawall.
This post highlights some of the recent visitors to the area. While not an exhaustive list, it features some of the whales that have been seen around the Stanley Park seawall within the past two years.
Grey Whales
CRC-2688
From late April to June 2026, a grey whale was frequently spotted in Vancouver’s English Bay. The whale was observed surfacing and filter-feeding close to shore from several locations, including Kitsilano Beach, Sunset Beach, English Bay, and the stretch between Second and Third Beach in Stanley Park.
On May 4, while feeding along the western shoreline of Stanley Park, the whale was struck by a jet skier as it surfaced. The incident highlights the importance of responsible boating practices and increased awareness around marine wildlife. In Canadian waters, vessels must remain at least 100 metres (roughly one football field) away from all whales, with stricter regulations in place for certain species.
In the weeks following the collision, the whale continued to be observed feeding and moving normally around English Bay. While it remained difficult to assess the whale’s overall condition, experts considered these encouraging signs. The whale was last seen on June 2 between Kitsilano Beach and English Bay Beach.
As Vancouver heads into a busy boating season, it’s important for everyone on the water to know how to safely share habitat with marine wildlife. The Marine Education and Research Society (MERS) has a free, online whale-safe boating course available on their website.
CRC-53 (Little Patch)
Little Patch is a grey whale that was spotted in the inlet last spring, from mid-April through May. He is a male grey whale from the North Puget Sound population (“Sounders”) and was first documented in Washington in 1991, making him at least 34 years old.
Grey whales like Little Patch breed in the warm lagoons of Baja California during the winter before migrating north for the summer to feed in the Bering and Chukchi Seas between Alaska and Siberia.
Transient Orcas
Around Vancouver, the most commonly encountered orca ecotype is the Transient Orca, also known as the Bigg’s Killer Whale (Orcinus orca rectipinnis). Unlike resident orcas (Orcinus orca ater), which primarily feed on fish, transient orcas hunt marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and dolphins.
Orcas are matrilineal, meaning family lineages are traced through their mothers. Transient orca groups typically consist of three to six individuals, usually a female matriarch and her offspring. Males often remain with their mothers for life, while many females eventually establish matrilines of their own. Although their family groups are generally smaller than those of resident orcas, multiple pods will sometimes travel together, forming impressive “T-parties.”
Transient orcas are most often seen in Howe Sound (Átl’ḵa7tsem), a network of fjords stretching northwest from the Burrard Inlet between West Vancouver and Squamish. Some pods continue east into Burrard Inlet, travelling beneath the Lions Gate Bridge through Vancouver Harbour and under the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing before turning north toward Indian Arm. They may remain there for a day or two before making their westward exit. Depending on timing, these passages can provide opportunities to spot orcas from locations such as the Stanley Park Seawall, Canada Place, New Brighton Park, and Cates Park.
West Coast transient orcas are identified using a naming system beginning with “T” for transient, followed by a number. Individuals sharing the same number belong to the same matriline, while letters and additional numbers denote offspring and lineage. For example, T36B1A is a calf belonging to the T36 matriline: T36 is her great-grandmother, T36B her grandmother, and T36B1 her mother.
T101’s – Mama’s Boys
- T101 Reef, female born 1969
- T101A Rush, male born 1993
- T101B Lagoon, male born 1997
One of the most regularly encountered pods in the Burrard Inlet, this trio is known for its brief yet imposing visits. Led by the matriarch Reef (T90), the pod also includes her two sons, Rush and Lagoon, who have remained with her their entire lives. Among whale watchers, they are sometimes nicknamed the “Boring Bigg’s” because they are most often seen travelling quickly through the inlet and are only rarely observed actively hunting. Nonetheless, the two brothers have an impressive presence, with similarly towering dorsal fins- Rush’s being slightly more curved and bent at the tip than Lagoon’s. The pod has also been known to make back-to-back visits, as they did earlier this April.
T90’s – The Winnie the Pooh Family
- T90 Eagle, female born 1980
- T90B Piglet, male born 2006
- T90C Tigger, female born 2010
- T90D Kanga, female born 2017
Notoriously adept hunters, this family of four is led by the matriarch T90 Eagle, who can be identified by a distinctive round dimple at the base of her dorsal fin, scarring left behind from an old tracking device. Her three offspring were named after Winnie-the-Pooh characters: T90B Piglet, a large male with a towering dorsal fin; T90C Tigger, recognizable by her shark-shaped dorsal fin; and T90D Kanga, who remains small and nimble.
On February 10, 2023, while travelling to a Coastal Waterbird Survey, SPE staff and volunteers witnessed this group making their westward exit through the Lions Gate Bridge. As they approached the bridge, the pod was observed hunting seals, with Piglet making several spectacular breaches!
T87 – Harbeson, The Lone Legend
Born around 1962, Harbeson is one of the oldest known wild orcas and can be identified by the distinctive notched tip of his tall dorsal fin. He is considered a “lone male,” meaning he is not consistently associated with a particular pod, though he is believed to be the brother of T90 Eagle and occasionally travels with her family group — as observed by our Coastal Waterbird Survey team in 2023. On other occasions, he has been seen accompanying different pods and lone males going in and out of the Lions Gate Bridge, most notably T124C Cooper in recent years.
T123’s – Stanley and Family
- T123 Sidney, female born 1985
- T123A Stanley, male born 2000
- T123C Lucky, female born 2012
- T123D D’Arcy, female born 2018
This pod has been making recent headlines for their well-coordinated “exit parade” out of Stanley Park in early May 2026. The matriarch, Sidney (T123), is one of the largest female orcas in the population. Her son Stanley (T123A), aptly named after Stanley Park, sports an exceptionally large and wide dorsal fin with a small notch halfway down the trailing edge, as well as a distinctive “underbite” appearance.
Though Stanley is often easy to identify, he is known to have a doppelgänger with a remarkably similar dorsal fin: T60C Yelnats whoses name is “Stanley” spelled backwards! (The T60 pod, however, is not known to frequent this area.)
T123C Lucky, a female born in 2012, was named after surviving inside her pregnant mother when she and Stanley became stranded at low tide. The youngest member of the pod, T123D D’Arcy, was born in 2018.
Last spring, this pod made several trips into Indian Arm. On June 13, 2025, they were observed hunting seals beneath the Lions Gate Bridge before beginning their exit from the inlet. One interesting behaviour observed was the “moonwalk”, where an orca surfaces in reverse, which is believed to be to be a way of sharing their prey with one another. However, they were not yet finished entertaining Vancouver audiences. Shortly afterward, they became unexpected party crashers at T100 Triathlon at Jericho Beach! (wrong pod!) Fortunately, the swim portion of the race had already concluded, but the commentators and spectators welcomed the exciting distraction from the ongoing bike race.
Watching the Inlet
Across these recent sightings, one theme stands out: just how dynamic and interconnected the transient orca world is along the Salish Sea. From familiar matrilines returning through the Burrard Inlet and surrounding waterways, to newly identified pods appearing from as far away as Alaska, these encounters continue to reshape what we know about movement patterns, family structure, and hunting behaviour in this region. Each sighting adds another piece to an evolving story, one that is still very much being written beneath the surface of Vancouver’s waters.
