September 24th - Humpback whales "Heather" and "Raptor" outside of Active Pass

With beautiful conditions Cascadia set off to explore at 11am. The Strait was flat as glass and our boat spent a good hour or so scanning and scanning, but to no avail. After visiting with seals and sea lions, and touring through the Gulf Islands, it was well into the afternoon and still no whales had been found.

Seas like glass! Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher

Just as we were about to make a turn for home, Vancouver boats found 2 humpback whales just outside of Active Pass! We had two beautiful whales to watch!

Heather/Quattro (BCY0160) and Raptor (BCY0660) were traveling right next to each other and zig-zagging in front of the entrance to Active Pass. They were doing 6-10 minute dives, hopefully finding lots of delicious food deep down in the water column. The conditions were stunning throughout the whole encounter and we had many peaceful moment watching their flukes being raised up to the sky and then disappearing gracefully into the calm sky blue sea.

Unfortunately we had some camera malfunctions and weren’t able to snag any great fluke shots, but here are a few pictures that were taken during Sept 24th’s tour.

Scanning the Strait. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher

Captain James at the helm. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher

The “hump” of the humpback pushing through the water. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher

Fluke! Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher

Fluke of whale “Raptor”. To see more detailed photos of individual flukes, visit www.ketacoastalconservation.org to view their free online catalogue. Photo by Natalie Reichenbacher