September 13th - Humpbacks, humpbacks, and more humpbacks!

The weather was great all day as our boats set out in search of wildlife in the Salish Sea. It only took an hour or so before our first encounter with some humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia. One boat saw two mom and calf pairs - Zephyr and calf and Divot and calf not far from each other. Zephyr’s calf was full of energy and being very entertaining, doing incredible behaviours like breaching, head slapping, pec slaps, and backstrokes. It’s not everyday we get to see even one of these behaviours - what an incredible encounter!

Zephyr is quite young. Zephyr’s mother, Divot, gave birth to Zephyr in 2011. Zephyr had her first calf in 2019. So, she was only about 8 years old when she had her first calf! Her second calf (the one in these pictures) was born in 2021, meaning Zephyr has had two calves by the age of 10!

Our other vessel saw humpback whale Trooper breaching off in the distance, but by the time they approached he had gone back to to traveling slowly. What a trickster! This boat also saw humpback whales Scuba and an unknown, and Scuba curiously approached the vessel while our engines were off. This behaviour is called mugging and is relatively new, although we have been seeing it more and more in the Salish Sea as the years go on. It is very important to have your engines shut off if a humpback is within 100m of your vessel!

The afternoon tour brought us even more humpbacks, roughly eight of them! Some individuals that we identified were Fader, Anvil, Big Momma, Delta, and Windy. We could have stayed out there all night encountering and IDing humpback whales!

Here are some of the best photos taken during the tours by marine naturalists Brad Farrow and Cheyenne Brewster.

Zephyr’s calf, breaching and waving. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Zephyr’s calf. Can you spot its throat pleats? Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Zephyr’s calf. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Zephyr. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Zephyr’s calf. Can you see the difference between their fluke and Zephyr’s fluke (photo above)? Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Zephyr’s calf (left) and Zephyr (right). The calf has a scallop-like back edge on its dorsal. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Trooper/Slice. Do you see how they earned their nicknames? Photo by Brad Farrow, 10:30AM.

Scuba’s ‘scuba diver’ marking. Photo by Brad Farrow, 10:30AM.

Scuba (right) and his unknown friend. Photo by Brad Farrow, 10:30AM.

Double breach! Photo by Brad Farrow, 3:30PM.

Humpback expelling water from it’s mouth. Photo by Brad Farrow, 3:30PM.

Anvil tail lobbing. Photo by Brad Farrow, 3:30PM.

Nap time! Photo by Brad Farrow, 10:30AM.

Seals relaxing. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, 10:30AM.

Jilann LechnerSeptember 17, 20211 Comment