Another spectacular day with the humpbacks! All three boats headed out in different directions to see what we could find. We have specific areas where we know we have a good chance of finding humpbacks, so with no reports to start the day, we decided to head south in hopes of finding a few of our gentle giants. Soon we spotted blows off of Valdez Island, just north of Porlier Pass. We came across two sleepy humpbacks hanging out together, it was Meqe' (BCZ0492) and Beak (BCX1606)! Although these two started sleepy, they quickly woke up and we got to see some beautiful flukes from both of them and even a cartwheel! A cartwheel is what it’s called when a humpback whale throws its tail out of the water, with some sideways movement to it. It’s very similar to a tail slap, except that a tail slap would be more up and down, with a slap and no sideways movement. They are pretty remarkable to see, as the humpback whales have so much power shown in these types of movements. Anytime they move the bulk of their massive bodies in these fast ways, it reminds you of how powerful they are.

While spending time here, another group of three humpback whales moved quickly past, but they didn’t stick around long enough for us to keep track of them for an ID, at least for most of them. For one of them, we got enough of a look to ID a dorsal fin, and it was Geometry (BCZ0338)! Geometry has a distinctly shaped dorsal fin with a few recognizable scars, which helped us out today.

Leaving these whales behind, we continued south, until we came across another set of blows! This time it was two whales travelling together: Kappa (BCX1058) and Split Fluke (BCX1068). These two were travelling very close together for the whole time we spent with them, something we call '“association”. When whales are associated like this, the amount of time they do it for varies greatly. Sometimes it can be a few minutes, a few hours, to a few days/weeks. Kappa and Split Fluke seemed to have just gotten together since we saw Kappa with a different group of whales during our tour yesterday. No one really knows what causes these associations and what benefit the whales get from it, if any, but it’s very cool to see whales travelling together like we did today!

In addition to the whales we also stopped at Stinky Rocks to see the Harbour Seals and Steller Sea Lions, spending time lounging on the rocks while keeping a watchful eye on us floating by. We also got to see the other species of sea lion, the California Sea Lions, closer to Nanaimo at the Harmac Pulp Mill. Finally, we made a stop at the Gabriola Bluffs to see the cormorants nesting there. It was a beautiful end to the day!

Please enjoy all of the photos taken during the tour by the Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Cheyenne Brewster, and Vanessa Vereschahen available below!

September 12, 2024, 10:30 am- Humpback Party

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