July 31st - An afternoon with Raptor and her calf

It’s been an incredible season for humpback whale encounters, particularly with momma humpbacks bringing their new calves to our area! On this sunny day we got to visit with Raptor (BCY0660) the humpback whale and her young calf who was being quite curious!

Raptor the humpback was given her name because of the raptor claw-like markings on the underside of her tail. We didn’t manage to get a photo that shows those markings but if you head on over to www.ketacoastalconservation.org there is a free catalogue with humpback whale flukes and you can find Raptor in there.

Raptor’s calf also has a very distinct dorsal fin (Raptor’s is long and rounded and her calf’s is very pointy with lots of white scarring). It can be very tricky to get a photograph of the underside of a calf’s fluke because they don’t tend to raise them in the air as often or as high. On this trip we were very lucky and marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker managed to get a partial fluke shot! From this photograph we know that the calf fits into the “Z” category of fluke colouration. “X” is if the fluke is mostly dark, “Y” is a mixture, and “Z” is mostly white. Check out that photo as well as others from this exciting day!

Photo by marine naturalist Rebeka Pirker

Jilann LechnerJuly 31, 2020Comment