We were lucky enough today to start our morning with a report of a blow seen from the ferry near departure day! Although there were some waves, we were all feeling up to the adventure and decided to head that way and check it out. We tucked into our suits cozy and warm and peeked out into the Strait of Georgia, with no luck spotting our whale, we decided to join our Semi-covered vessel on the inside of the islands to continue our search. We headed south through Dodd Narrows, into the protected waters of the Southern Gulf islands before trying our luck in the Strait once more, this time with some extra protection provided by the Flat Top Islands south of Gabriola. We were rewarded by seeing a blow in the distance, we had found ourselves a humpback whale feeding along the shore of Valdes Island!

Thankfully the wind had already started to calm down for us while we spent our time watching this yearling who does not have a nickname yet, they still go by their calf number BCY0523 calf 2023. This number is taken from their mother Graze BCY0253. Eventually, our little whale will have their own number and nickname, but usually, it takes a little while. We give them their numbers and names when they reach approximately 2 years of age! Although our whale was only a year old it is far from little, when born this whale would have between 13 to 16 feet long and weigh 1 to 2 tons! BCY0523calf2023 has put on some size since birth, and they grow fast! This whale would have been growing at a rate of approximately 1.5 feet per month! Graze would have been providing them with up to 370 litres of thick fat fat-rich milk daily while they travelled together in their first year, which explains this amazing growth spurt. Graze would have also been fasting at this time, so she may have not eaten herself in months. This selfless act provides the strength the calf needs for its long migration back to our waters to feed. Graze and her calf come to us from Hawaii which is a distance of over 4400 km, and this year our calf would have made that migration without mom!

We know our calf was hungry as we watched them today since they were lunge-feeding. Lunge feeding is just as it sounds; the whale lunges forward with that huge mouth that holds 200 bathtubs worth of water wide open and scoops up that water, hopefully, full of tiny goodies. Krill, plankton and small schooling fish make up their diets, when they have the food-filled water scooped up they then close their mouths and use their tongues to push the water through the baleen that hangs from the top jaw and acts as a filter. After the prey gets stuck in the baleen the whale licks it off and swallows! After watching our humpback today on a mission to get as much food as possible, we were treated to a little celebration with some cartwheels. Of course, we can only speculate that is what the cartwheeling was about, but we humans like to go for a walk to get some exercise after eating a big meal too! After leaving our full-bellied humpback we continued our search, meeting a few other favorites of the Salish Sea!

We found “Stinky Steve”, a large male Steller Sea Lion that has earned quite the name for himself. He was hanging out at Stinky Rocks with some friends. Also at Stinky Rocks, we spotted their tiny cousins our Harbour Seals. We made one last stop at the Eagle nest and then over to the Bluffs to spot our Cormorant, Gulls, Turkey Vultures and Pigeon guillemots! What a beautiful spot they found to nest!

Enjoy the photos taken below by Marine Naturalists Vanessa Vereschahen, Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert.