Although the weather was cloudy and moody, our vessels, Kula and Cascadia, left the Nanaimo harbour with high spirits! They ventured northward, following up on some leads from early morning sightings.

Not long into their adventure, we spotted our first whales of the day! Keta had located Niagara (BCY0057) and Slits (BCY0946), and Kula had found Coyote (BCX2484)! Typically, we use the underside of our humpback’s flukes to identify our individual whales, but today they were not being very cooperative. Thankfully, today’s humpbacks could be identified by less conventional means! Coyote was confirmed by their dorsal fin, Slits was confirmed by her very distinct dorsal fin and a small sliver of fluke we were able to see, and Niagara was confirmed by a top fluke photo! Niagara has a distinct white patch on the top of his fluke, which you can see in the photos below!

The humpback whales that visit British Columbia’s coastal waters migrate here for their summer feeding, after returning from their winter breeding grounds in Hawaii and Mexico. During their time in B.C., they feed mostly on krill, as well as small schooling fish and copepods. In a season, humpbacks can migrate upwards of 15,000 kilometres! During their migration and breeding down south, humpbacks won’t feed until they return to their summer feeding grounds. This means that they can go up to half the year without eating - now that is an impressive fast!

Niagara is a fascinating whale, as his mother Houdini, was one of the first documented humpbacks to return to the Salish Sea regularly in the 1990s after the whaling era decimated the population. Houdini and fellow ladies such as Big Mama were an important part in the population bouncing back into the incredible numbers that call the coast home again now. While it was once considered incredibly rare to see the massive blows of a humpback along our coast, now that numbers have recovered (in an event we have lovingly dubbed the “Humpback comeback”), every summer we tend to see several humpbacks meandering along the shores, a truly incredible and truly-West Coast vibe!

Once our time was up with the humpbacks, our vessels continued their expedition. Shortly after departing, our vessels started to head northwest when something in the distance caught their eye. It happened to be some orca!

We snapped some photos and confirmed this orca as the T002Cs:

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)
T002C6 (2025)

The T002Cs have been extra exciting this season as they have a tiny new addition! T002C6, the tiny orange calf gliding beside matriarch T002C Tasu, has been stealing the spotlight on every tour they show up on! When orca calves are young, they appear orange instead of white. As they age, they will develop their signature white and black look. This odd colouring is because, as a calf, their blubber layer is thin, so you are able to see their blood vessels through their skin!

Suddenly, another blow was spotted nearby! We hopped over and identified this little one as Crevasse (BCX2054)! We didn’t stay with Crevasse for long, but we did stick around long enough to get one perfect ID shot! We left Crevasse to continue feeding and fluking and headed out in search of other wildlife.

We hopped over to the Winchelsea Islands, where we spotted some familiar spotty heads popping up from amongst the rocks - it was a small bob of Harbour Seals! These little guys love to rest the day away, spending upwards of 10 hours every day snoozing. Seems like a pretty nice life if you ask us!

Soon we had to depart and make our way back to home port. We cruised back into the Nanaimo harbour, wrapping up a wonderful Northern adventure visiting many of our marine mammals along Vancouver Island’s coastline!

Please enjoy these photos taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert.

June 27, 2025, 10:30 AM - Double the species, double the fun!