September 17th - Two humpback whales near Ballenas Islands

Cascadia departed Nanaimo at 11am and spent several hours combing through the Gulf Islands with no results. Just when it seemed like there wouldn’t be any whales found that day, they spotted two gorgeous humpback whales north of Nanaimo around Ballenas Islands.

Our boats waited in flat calm conditions as these whales took turns surfacing and fluking. We were able to ID the two individuals based on unique patterns on the underside of their fluke - a whale fingerprint! The two whales have both been seen in this area before, and have even been seen traveling and feeding together recently! Here are some photos of Quattro/Heather and Raptor the humpback whales taken that day by marine naturalist Rodrigo Menezes.

Heather/Quattro is easily identifiable by the H/4 on the top left of her fluke

Raptor is identifiable by the three raptor claw-like scratches on the right side of its fluke. You might have to zoom in to see!

Double Rainblow!!