July 2nd - We found a humpback whale near Active Pass!

On July 2nd we traveled all the way down to Active Pass where we found a Humpback. This whale was traveling in a zig-zag pattern around the boat, popping up and then diving down to feed.

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we did not get any photos of our humpback on this day, but it was still a fantastic trip.

Humpback whales return to the Salish Sea in the early summer from their breeding grounds in Mexico and Hawaii. They spend the whole summer here feeding on small fish, plankton and krill before migrating back south. Once they leave our waters they don’t eat anything until they return the next year. That’s a long time to go between meals! It’s really important for them to eat a lot and put on as much weight as possible before making the trip, especially for pregnant females who will have to provide milk for their calves over the winter.

Humpbacks can eat as much as 4-5,000 lbs of food each day while they are here. They do this by opening their mouths, expanding their throats and engulfing large volumes of water. Then they push that water out through their baleen plates to trap and filter fish, krill and plankton.

If you’d like a chance to see Humpbacks or Orcas and all our other wonderful wildlife, you can book a tour through our website, give us a call at 250-667-5177, or email our office at info@vancouverislandwhalewatch.com

We are running daily tours at 1PM with reduced capacity on both our open and closed boat!