Cascadia and Kula left Nanaimo at 10:30am in search of wildlife in calm conditions. We searched around the surrounding Gulf Islands, including Valdes, Mudge, and Gabriola, before finding humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia.

It was a group of 3 humpback whales milling and feeding, not too far off of Gabriola Island. Seeing multiples humpback whales interacting in the feeding grounds who aren’t a mom and calf pair is always so mysterious to watch! Generally adult humpback whales will travel and feed on their own, but over the years we have been seeing more and more of these associations, or “friendships”, between humpback whales. Maybe they are distantly related? Maybe they remember each other from previous feeding seasons? Maybe they don’t know each other but it’s more effective to feed together? We might not ever know why, but it certainly is fun to watch 3 of these giants interacting together!

Humpback whales come to our cold, nutrient dense waters to filter feed on prey such as krill, herring, sand lance, and other bait fish. Even though they are such a large animal and need an extreme amount of calories in the summer season, their throat is only about as wide as a grapefruit so they must feed on smaller prey. Another thing that makes it impossible for them to feed on larger prey is that they don’t have any teeth! Instead, they have long plates of bristly baleen hanging down in their mouths that acts as a filter to separate the small stuff out of the water they gulp. Imagine hanging a toothbrush in your mouth instead of teeth!

We also saw lots of seabirds, seals, and sea lions!

Here are the best photos our Naturalists Ryan and Cheyenne captured during the tour: