September 22nd - Divot and calf East of Galiano Island
It was a beautiful sunny day when we left the harbour on the 22nd in search of some whales! We ended up travelling down in the Strait of Georgia along the east side of Gabriola and Valdes island until we finally got to our two humpback whales: Divot and her calf! These two were travelling north when we found them, doing shallow dives and barely lifting their tail flukes up out of the water. As we were getting close to the end of our time with them they suddenly woke up! We got two full breaches out of Divot as well as some pec slapping as her calf watched on. Usually when we find a cow-calf pair it’s more likely to be the calf who will be jumping around and being more active at the surface so it was quite the treat to have this full sized humpback throwing herself out of the water. For an adult humpback breaching is a huge amount of energy considering they are having to propel about 30,000kg out of the water. It is estimated that it is the energy equivalent of an adult human running a marathon!
Divot jumping out of the water!
It’s obviously an amazing sight to see but no one is really sure why the humpbacks breach. Sometimes it seems like it is just for fun since it can be accompanied by other surface behaviours but other theories include that it is long distance communication to other humpbacks in the area or it is used to knock parasites off of their skin. As more research is done with these animals hopefully questions like this will start to have more concrete answers, but for now we will just have to enjoy the show!
During our tour we also saw some Steller sea lions hanging out on a buoy near the Gabriola Reef, some harbour seals at Miami island, and some California sea lions on the log booms along Vancouver Island! It was a fantastic day filled with a ton of different wildlife. Please enjoy the photos from the day taken by naturalist Brad.
Steller sea lion watching us from a buoy.
Fighting sea lions! These guys will sometimes get into a fight for a better position on the buoy.
Divot surfacing. Check out all those scars!
Divot (front) surfacing with her calf (back).
Another look at divot breaching!
Divot pec slapping.
Another pec slap! Look at all those barnacles!
A harbour seal taking a look at our guests.
Some surf Scoters in flight!
Oyster catchers (front) and pelagic cormorants (back) at Miami island!
A great look at the iridescent feathers of the pelagic cormorants.
A California sea lion showing off all their flippers on the log booms.