June 30, 2024, 3:30 pm - Humpback Party and the T065Bs travelling with the T075Bs

We left the harbour for the afternoon tour with the plan of trying to find the same whales as we had in the morning tour, and we did turn out successful in this task, in reverse. We headed from Nanaimo out into the Strait of Georgia, and south along Gabriola Island until something in the distance caught our eye, it was whales!

Usually when we spot just blows on the horizon, its humpback whales. By the time you can see the blows from the orca, you can typically also see their dorsal fins! We decided to go over there to be sure, and it was indeed a humpback whale. It was a single whale feeding in the area that we got a great look at the tail for, quickly IDing it as Neptune (BCY1021)! Neptune is a very distinct whale with a ton of white to the underside of their tail, closer to the 80% white than the 20% white that classifies the “y” type humpback whales in the area. White flukes like this are much more rare than the darker pigmented ones in BC and really tend to stand out, not just on the water but in our memories. While feeding Neptune was doing long dives, going deep below the surface in search of their food. Eventually we decided to leave them to it, and continued to look for more whales.

It didn’t take long before we spotted more blows in the distance, more humpback whales! This time it was three whales travelling together, more focused on socializing rather than feeding it seemed. They were travelling very close together, likely close enough that they could be touching their long pectoral fins to each other below the surface. When research first began on the humpback whales it was thought that they were solitary creatures, only having mother-calf relationships for the first year and not much socializing outside the need for breeding. As time has gone on and their populations have recovered, we see them grouped up more and more, and assume that they are much more social than was once thought. These three whales were Coyote (BCX0837), Scoop (BCX0870), and Moray (BCY1176) travelling together today. They were still going for periodic deeper dives, showing their tails off as they went. One whale decided that a normal surface wasn’t fun enough for them, and we saw Coyote leap out of the water a couple of times! It’s always breathtaking to see this and with good reason. It’s a huge energy commitment for the humpback whales, taking about 2% of their entire daily energy, or the equivalent of a human running a marathon.

While it was great spending time with these humpback whales, all good things must come to an end and we continued on from them to see what else we might find. Soon we came across the orca from this morning again, still travelling south in the Strait. It was the T065Bs and T075Bs travelling together still, so the following whales:

T065B Chunk ♀ (1993)
T065B1 Birdsall ♂ (2011)
T065B2 Nettle ♀ (2019)
T065B3 (2023)

T075B Pebbles ♀ (1995)
T075B2 Jasper ♀ (2015)
T075B3 Rubble (2017)
T075B4 (2021)

This afternoon they seemed to be on a mission, traveling very quickly along the shoreline of Valdes Island. They were moving so fast they were even porposing out of the water! That’s what it’s called when the whales throw a lot of themselves out of the water with lots of forward momentum. It is faster for them since there is much less resistance in the air than in the water. They continued like this the entire time we spent with them. It’s always interesting to speculate about why the whales might be travelling so quickly, sometimes it’s because they are heading towards something, like another pod of orca that might be further south or maybe they were travelling away from something else. There could be a lot of other possibilities that we can’t even imagine that might be moving these whales!

After our time with these fast-travelling orca was up, we went over to Stinky Rocks and got to see a ton of wildlife hanging out there. First up was the Steller Sea Lions crowding on the little rocks that were left from the rising tide. These are the largest Sea Lion species in the world, with the males getting up to over 2500 pounds. It was a little difficult to tell their full size since they were pretty sleepy today, but it was still great to watch them resting on the rocks. Continuing along the rocks we also came across some of the smaller Harbour Seals, also holding onto the last of the rocks. They are much smaller than their cousins the sea lions, only getting to be around 300 pounds. There were not only the ones on the rocks, but we also got to see a few of their heads floating around in the water. It’s getting to be pupping season for the Harbour Seals so some of them are getting to be very robust and we are even starting to see some babies in the mix! There weren’t any babies today, but there were some pretty big-looking seals!

Finally, we continued toward Nanaimo and made one last stop at the Gabriola Bluffs! Here we got to see the young Bald Eagle in their nest, although they aren’t exactly in their nest anymore. They seem to be practicing jumping from branch to branch which is the first step towards fledging. They practise small flights before making the big one out of the nest and away from their parents. According to the Gabriola Island Bald Eagle Timetable Greyson should be making his first flight by the end of this month.

Further along the bluffs, we got to see a whole lot of other wildlife. At this point, the tide was lower, and we got to see some intertidal creatures like our starfish and sea anemones. We even got to see a gull eating one of these unfortunate Sea Stars, that was one of the hazards of staying this close to the surface. It is pretty amusing to see though! Finally, as we were heading into the harbour we got one final look at a pair of Bald Eagles that were hanging out on the marker for the mouth of the Nanaimo River.

It was a great end to a great tour, and the onboard naturalist Lucy Willis captured lots of great photos of all the wildlife we saw this afternoon which can be viewed below!

The underside of Neptune’s tail, see the poo at the base?

Scoop going for a dive. Looking at our photos, we saw a piece of fishing line that is attached to her tail flukes. Luckily it looks like it’s just caught on the barnacles.

These two lumps are from the jaw bone of the humpback whale.

The underside of Scoop’s tail flukes! Can you see the small hole?

T075B3 Rubble surfacing next to another doing a spy hop!

A tail slap to the left and T075B2 Fifi surfacing on the right.

T065B1 Birdsall surfacing in front of Valdes Island.

The orca really picked up speed and started porposing through the water.

There are actually two whales porposing in this photo!

T075B4 surfacing in front of T075B3 Rubble.

Steller Sea Lions fighting in the waves.

A harbour seal swimming by in the water.

Greyson exploring the tree near his nest.

Being possessed by Cthulhu or having a starfish for dinner? You decide!

Some Bald Eagles keeping an eye on things from the top of the marker.

Jilann LechnerJune 30, 2024WhalesComment