October 17th - Humpbacks Galore!

Cascadia and Kula headed out at noon on Sunday the 17th and just outside of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia they located whales!

Cascadia found a group of 3 humpbacks who were actively feeding, rolling, and pec slapping. There were a few more whales off in the distance traveling slowly, but the majority of the encounter was spent with these three: Zorro (BCX0380), Smiley (KEY0019), and Nike (KEX0003).

Kula was on the way to join the party but found two whales of their own first. These 2 whales were being elusive so we only stayed for one surface before carrying onto the larger group. The other three whales in this group were later identified as Wilkinson (BCY0267), Slate (BCX1210) and calf. There was lots of activity from these whales, including tail lobbing and fluking.

We are able to identify individual humpback whale by using the unique patterns on their flukes and dorsal fins. If you’d like to try and match up some of our fluke photos you can use Keta Coastal Conservation’s free resource: http://www.ketacoastalconservation.org/keta-catalogue-the-salish-sea

These amazing photos were taken by marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Rebecca Stirling.

Jilann LechnerOctober 20, 2021Comment