May 22nd - Four Humpbacks and much more!
Today our two zodiacs (Cascadia and Keta) left Nanaimo Harbour at noon for a new adventure.
The sea’s conditions were a little rough at the Strait of Georgia, thus we decided to head south trough Dodd’s Narrow and search for whales on the flat waters of the Gulf Islands. On our way south, our guests had the chance to watch an example of the Salish Sea’s biodiversity, such as Harbour seals, Bald eagles, Oystercatchers and also the fast and shy Harbour porpoises.
Check some of the best photos taken by our Marine Naturalists Rodrigo Menezes and Natalie Reichenbacher.
After that, when we were around Saturna Island, we had an amazing encounter with not one or two, but FOUR Humpbacks whales!!!!
The first two were Slate (BCX 1210) and her new calf.
Slate and her new calf with Mount Baker in the background. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Slate and calf
The other two Humpbacks were not too far from Slate and her calf, but travelling in a different direction, thus we decided to watch these two adults. We soon realized that these two were Heather (BCY 0160) and Raptor (BCY 0660), who usually travel together and are common visitors on the Salish Sea. It is such a great news that these guys had a successful migration on the way down south to Mexico/Hawaii and back to British Columbia. And from now until late fall they gonna use our waters as a place to feed, rest and recovery energy for their next migration.
Heather (left) and Raptor (right) doing a synchronized fluke. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Heather. Photo: Natalie Reichenbacher
Heather
Raptor. Photo: Natalie Reichenbacher
Heather and Raptor. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Heather
Heather. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Heather and Raptor. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Raptor. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Raptor
After leaving Heather and Raptor we still had some time to watch the Steller sea lions. Did you know that this is the largest specie of Sea lion in the world? An adult male can weight more than 1 metric ton!!!
Impressive, eh?
Come with us in our next adventure!!!
Steller sea lions. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes
Steller sea lions. Photo: Rodrigo Menezes