July 31st - A small humpback whale

Another hot day here in Nanaimo (actually the entire coast of BC!) and people are starting to feel it. Some smart, adventurous people decided to take reprieve from the heat by joining us for a whale watch tour! Out boats Keta and Cascadia set off the dock at 10:30 and again at 3:30 in search of either humpback whales or transient killer whales. 

Boats from all companies were combing in and out of the islands and across the Strait of Georgia. Hours of beautiful scenery went by until around 12:30 a captain from a different company found a small humpback whale!

Baby humpback surfacing, see how tiny the dorsal fin is? How cute! Photo by Alanna Vivani.

Humpback whales usually travel solo in this part of the world, or occasionally in small groups, so it was not unusual to have find this guy by himself. Humpback whale calves are born down south in the warm waters of Hawaii and Mexico where they will be nice and warm during this critical time in their life. Here the mothers can nurse them until they gain enough of a blubber layer to travel north (to us!) to the cold seas to filter feed on krill, herring, and other small fish. 

The humpback calf took some longer dives, but each time we saw the little blow the excitement took over to have a peek at the dorsal fin surfacing right after it! Adult humpbacks can have a blow up to 12 ft in height, but the newborn's blow was much smaller.

The newborn showing off it's fluke and pectoral fin for us! Photo by Alanna Vivani.

Humpback calf going down for a longer dive. Photo by Alanna Vivani.