September 23rd - Humpback "Scorch" and an unknown
Today was an interesting day to watch whales. We encountered two individuals while out on our tour today. One of them, whom we have nicknamed “Scorch”, has very extensive new scarring all over their fluke. This could have been caused my many different things, ranging from entanglement in fishing gear, to rubbing on sharp objects, to maybe even fighting with predatory whales like Orca.
We watched these whales moving slowly and doing steady deep dives. Humpbacks come to our nutrient dense waters for the spring, summer, and fall months to feed on things like krill, herring, and sand lance. In the winter months they travel south to the warmer waters of Hawaii and Mexico where they fast while breeding.
We are discovering more and more of these gentle giants in the Salish Sea each year and our company has been fortunate to have so many new individuals found on tours this year!
We also stopped at some haul outs to spend some time with pinnipeds! We see harbour seals on our rocky shores year round; they camouflage quite well so they can be tricky to spot from far away! Sea lions also come to our area and most have been gone all summer, but we are starting to see them on local log booms in big numbers again!
Here are some of the best photos by Rebecca Stirling and Brad Farrow.
Photo by Brad Farrow.
Photo by Brad Farrow.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
“Scorch” - All the large white areas on their fluke are new scars. The pink areas in the centre are areas still healing. This humpback must have a whale of a tale to tell judging by all their new markings! Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.
Photo by Brad Farrow.
Photo by Rebecca Stirling.