August 6th - Time well spent with gentle giants and the T137's plus the 36A siblings.

The morning boats departed from Nanaimo in search of wildlife and a humpback whale not too far away. Humpback whales migrate to our waters for the summer season to feed on krill and baitfish. They can grow to over 50 feet long, making them one of if not THE largest animal that you can find in the Salish Sea!

The whale we encountered on this tour was a juvenile, so not grown to full adult size, but it certainly had a large personality! We saw lots of pectoral waving and tail slapping, and we even managed to get some photos of the underside of the fluke. The fluke of a humpback whale is like a human fingerprint, different for each individual. We help local non-profits collect these photographs to help monitor the growing population of humpbacks in our local waters.

The afternoon tour on August 6th found us traveling all the way to the shores of Mayne Island, near the Washington boarder. The pod we found today was our lovely T137s, Loon, Jack, Tempest and Wright, traveling with the T36A siblings, Kailas and Mike iii. They were spread out quiet far, traveling slowly and as usual, the young ones were sticking very close to Jack again, especially his younger sibling Wright. We spent an hour watching the family move slowly south, meandering, separating, and coming back together.

These whales traveled the entire length of the island of Mayne before we left them to head north. Before going we stopped to take a look at the Stellar Sealions that were on a small island nearby. Most of our Stellars have moved up to the breeding grounds in the north end of the Island, but as usual, there’s always stragglers. Typically older females and males too young to defend a breeding territory. There were certainly many gray faces there as the Sealions argued for space on the rocks.

Below are some of the photos taken by Marine Naturalists Ryan Uslu and Rebeka Pirker.

Jilann LechnerAugust 12, 2021Comment