On September 16th our boat left a hazy harbour with calm seas in search of whales in the Salish Sea.
We spotted some large black fins shortly after we left the harbour and stopped the boat. At a 400 meter distance we started taking photos to figure out which ecotype we were dealing with, and it soon became apparent that they were endangered Southern Resident orcas. While it was exciting to see these whales, we do not actively seek them out or watch them. These whales are endangered, and it is our company policy to not watch them and to give them space while their population recovers. Last year our practices became law, and it is now illegal to watch endangered Southern Resident orcas in Canada. We were able to notify the military training facility outside Nanoose that the whales were heading into the training waters. This information is important to pass along because the endangered southern residents need quiet waters to communicate with each other and to hunt the salmon they eat, and the noise created by marine-based military training can seriously impact this.

We soon spotted some much larger whales splashing and headed that way instead. Two humpback whales were making a scene! It was Split Fluke and her 2018 calf Valiant! These 2 were pec slapping and diving as the Orcas headed past them. At this point the orcas were disappearing into the smokey haze around us. Occasionally a small black fin could be made out in the distance but it was evident that the SRKW’s had places to be, hopefully places full of salmon.

We stayed with Valiant and Split Fluke for an hour as they slowly traveled north. Valiant was in an especially good mood it seemed as he was doing half barrel rolls, lazily flicking his tail in the air, and doing plenty of trumpeting for us!

As we got ready to leave these whales gave us one final good bye, as Valiant gave us a close pass, raising his large pec fin in the air and waving, followed by a few trumpets before they 2 beautiful whales dipped below the surface off to find some lunch.

We continued out to the strait to find Heather and her calf Neowise. Neowise was doing some cartwheeling and enjoying the day while mom did some feeding. Heather is also Split Flukes mom, and Valiants Grandmother. We saw the whole family today, making the trip extra special.

On our way in to find Seals and Sea Lions we also got a single glimpse of Gibbous as they dove into the waters, heading North pretty quickly. Maybe he was going to check out Split Fluke and Valiant.

Check out the awesome photos we got during the tour of all our whales.

Entrance Island in the background. Photo by Rebeka Pirker.

September 16th -Humpback Soup!

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