October 10th - Humpbacks in the Strait

Both Cascadia and Keta headed out into the Strait of Georgia where there were reports of humpback whales. Two beautiful whales were spending lots fo time at the surface and fluking as they went down for deep dives. Seeing the fluke of a humpback whale is always a bittersweet moment - on one hand, you get to see such a huge part of this giant being raised out fo the water after waiting patiently, but on the other hand, generally the higher they raise their fluke the longer their breath hold will be. You have to be patient to be a whale watcher sometimes!

The fluke of a humpback whale can get up to 15 feet wide and weigh up to a tonne! You can estimate the length of the individual by looking at the width of the fluke and multiplying it by 3. The underside of the fluke has markings on it unique to each individual, kind of like a fingerprint. We were able to ID one whale as MMY0149, but the other is still a mystery to us!

Here are the best photos by marine naturalists Val Watson and Rebeka Pirker.

Jilann LechnerOctober 15, 2019Comment