June 18th - Humpback whale Zephyr in Trinomial channel

The 18th of June was our first day open for public tours again! We left the dock on a beautiful sunny day and headed out on a search for whales. Our trip took us into the Strait of Georgia where we travelled south all the way to the southern end of Galiano Island where we passed through active pass into Trincomali channel. This channel runs through the inside of the Southern Gulf Islands and is where we found our whale for the trip!

We first saw the blow in the distance and then the rise of a fluke out of the water! This is what humpbacks do when they’re going for a deep dive. After a couple minutes the whale surfaces again and we got to watch it fighting in the current outside of active pass with the tide change that was going on. Soon it took another dive and we managed to snap some pictures of the underside of its fluke. This surface is used for humpback ID. Looking at the photos we determined this animal to be MMZ0004 Zephyr! Zephyr is a 9 year old female humpback whale who is commonly found in the Salish Sea. We know she is female because last year she was travelling with a calf!

This is one of the best ways to figure out the gender of a humpback whale since there isn’t any other easily identifiable differences between the males and females of the species. Zephyr is the daughter of BCX1057 Divot who is also often found in the Salish Sea. Today it was just Zephyr though and we watched her travel peacefully against the current hiding south for an hour before we had to leave her. It was a wonderful trip home with the sun shining and the waters smooth.

Here are some of the photos from the trip taken by naturalist Val Watson. Enjoy!