July 11th - A humpback whale feeding near Bowen Island

On July 11th we left at 1pm from downtown Nanaimo and searched around Gabriola Island and into the Strait of Georgia. It was a grey, drizzly day but spirits were high as we got reports of humpback whale found over near Bowen Island.

Humpback whales have become a common visitor here in the Salish Sea and we are so grateful to have these giants here to feed. Humpback whales have an enormous lung capacity with allows them to hold their breath and dive sometimes an excess of 20 minutes! Luckily in our waters humpbacks dive for an average of 3-7 minutes, not 20.

Humpback whales come to the Salish Sea to filter feed on herring, sand lance, krill, and other prey for the entire summer season. They have many different strategies for capturing their food, including lunge feeding at depth or near the surface, bubble net feeding in Alaska, and trap feeding around North Vancouver Island. It all depends how deep and how dense their prey is!

On July 11th this hungry humpback whale was diving deep into the water column to nab its food. We watched it for an hour and unfortunately we were unable to get an ID. With the wet conditions we didn’t manage to get any great photos, but here are some taken by marine naturalist Ryan Uslu to remember the day!