On August 9th, all three of our boats set out from Nanaimo and we found two humpback whales just east of Porlier Pass. These humpbacks were first swimming slowly and fluking. As we kept approaching them, they started to breach non-stop! These two humpbacks breached close to 14 times in a row. Humpbacks breach to communicate with each other when there is a large distance between them. Sound travels faster under the water than above water so the huge splashes they cause can travel quite far. - it is estimated that the lowest frequencies of their songs may be able to travel around 16,000 kms (10000 miles) without losing their volume! They also use pectoral slaps and tail slaps for this as well. It's thought that they use these breaches and slaps to signal other humpbacks about location and/or food. You would think IDing these three would be easy when we were able to see them so often, but it actually turned out to be very difficult to get IDs for them! We were able to ID one of the 3 as Ocular. Ocular is a young humpback (5 years old) that has been enjoying the waters around Porlier Pass lately. Ocular has large lumps at the base of his flukes that may be caused by improperly healed entanglement scars. While this would typically lead to reduced mobility in our whales, Ocular seems to be keeping up with his friends very well and has even been spotted fluking!

In the afternoon, we found two more humpbacks near Valdes island called Smiley and Anvil. For the first little while these humpbacks were moving slowly and feeding. But they started to breach continuously too! These two were being very interesting - they were acting as if they were performing a synchronized swimming performance. The two of them were breaching together as well as pectoral slapping together. It was quite the sight to see! Smiley also began fluke slapping (slapping its tail on the water’s surface) repeatedly for nearly 15 minutes. Scoop and her calf were not far from them so they might've been signalling them to come over and enjoy a meal with them.

We also were lucky enough to witness defecation (pooping) during both of our trips! Humpback poop is bright pink due to their diet consisting mostly of krill. See if you can spot the poo in the photos below!

Check out the pictures our naturalists Cheyenne, Rebecca and Ryan got below:

Ocular with his peculiar lumps on either side of his flukes. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (10:30).

Can you spot the Humpback poop? Photo by Cheyenne Brewster (3:30).

August 9th - Breaching humpbacks all day long!

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