September 23rd - Re-sighting of a small, injured humpback!

Both Cascadia and Keta set off the dock at 11am in search of some amazing wildlife. It didn’t take long for Keta to locate a juvenile humpback whale right outside of Nanaimo near Snake Island!

This little humpback has quite the story, if only it could speak! Earlier this spring this humpback whale was seen by our boats in Howe Sound, and just a couple of weeks later it was seen with a fresh wound behind its dorsal fin. It appears to have been hit by a boat’s propellor and the injury was pretty substantial. Locals were alerted of the whale’s presence and asked to keep an eye out to help monitor this whale’s progress.

A few months had gone by and no one had any updates about this whale. Was the wound infected? Did the whale make it through the summer? Had the scars healed nicely?

This week, to our knowledge anyways, was the first time this whale has been re-sighted and we are very happy to see that the scars have been healing nicely and the whale appeared to be feeding. What great news!

Just behind Newcastle Island we watched this survivor! Photo by Val Watson

Let this also serve as a friendly reminder that it is illegal to get within 100m of a humpback whale in Canadian waters. If you see a blow off in the distance, slow down and keep a safe distance. If the whale is already within 100m of your vessel, turn off your engines and wait for the animal to move away.

From this side you can see the white scars left behind from the propellor accident. Photo by Val Watson

Our crew were quick with their cameras and were able to get dorsal shots from both sides as well as a fluke shot. We hope this whale is finding lots of food and we hope it returns to visit us again in the Salish Sea.

This whale will be easy to identify in the future because of its unfortunate accident. Photo by Val Watson

Photo by Val Watson

Fluke shot of KEX0026 “Slice” the humpback! Photo by Val Watson