September 24th - 4 humpbacks in the Strait
Another stunning day with humpback whales in the Salish Sea! Our boats Keta and Kula departed Nanaimo at noon and just over an hour into the tour they came across a large pod of 4 humpback whales. It was tricky to get a sense of how many there were at first because they were swimming so close together and on top of each other!
After some time taking photos and looking through our onboard ID catalogues, our naturalists and captains were able to ID the whales as Honu, Fader, Dreamer and calf. To get these IDs is no easy task. Our boat has to be in the right position and the whale has to surface at the right angle and raise its fluke out of the water. Our naturalists have to be quick to snag the “money shot” - the photograph that shows the patterns on the underside and trailing edge of the fluke.
The whales were being incredibly social while we were on scene and we were witness to behaviours such as tail lobbing, tail waves, pec slaps, and of course fluking and close travel. All of this splashing on the surface could be means to communicate with each other, or another common motivator in our area would be to help them feed. Humpbacks are filter feeders and it is to their advantage to have denser bait balls of prey to swim through. By making noise at the surface they can scare the fish or krill into a tighter ball, which then means more protein per mouthful!
Here are our best photos by Marine Naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Val Watson.
Dreamer (back) and calf (front). Photo by Val Watson.
Dreamer’s calf’s fluke! Young humpbacks typically cannot fully fluke like their mothers. This little one almost has it down though! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Honu. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Honu. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Fader. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Harbour Porpoises between us and our humpbacks. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Dreamer’s calf. It has barnacles right by its blowholes - can you see them? Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Dreamer (left) and calf (right). Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Honu. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Rainbow blows! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Dreamer (left) and calf (right). Photo by Val Watson.
Fader. Photo by Val Watson.
Honu. Photo by Val Watson.
Honu on their side (left), with Dreamer cruising by (right). Photo by Val Watson.
Two whales, bellies very close together…what do you think is going on here? Photo by Val Watson.
Left to right: Fader (front), Honu (back), Dreamer. Photo by Val Watson.
Honu (left) and Fader (right). Photo by Val Watson.
A variety of Harbour Seals. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Majestic Male Californian Sealion. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Itchy! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Sleepy Stellars. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.