July 27th - A lovely, calm day with humpback whale "Slate"!
It was a sunny, calm day when we left the harbour in search of whales on July 27th. Our three boats split-up and headed in different directions to cover more ground (or water in this case) to hopefully find some animals. With sharp eyes and a little bit of luck our boat Cascadia ended up spotting a blow off in the distance! This blow ended up belonging to BCX1210 Slate!
Slate is a female humpback whale who is commonly seen in the Salish Sea. These gentle giants come to the waters off of the coast of BC to build up their fat reserves! Once they have their layers of fat back they head down south to their breeding ground in Hawaii or Mexico where they will only feed very rarely and instead survive off of their fat that they have built over the summer. This migration that they do every year is the longest migration by a mammal on earth! The migration can also be done relatively quickly, covering about 6000km in a little over a month!
The humpback whales remain a favourite of guests and we felt that today watching slate surfacing in the calm waters and then seeing as her large tail sinks below the surface to find food once again.
Here are some photos from the day taken by naturalist Ryan Uslu.