August 30th 10:30 - Humpbacks in the Strait!

On the morning of the 30th our boats headed out on the Salish Sea and we found 2 humpbacks during our travels. The first whale we came across was our little friend Kelpie.

Kelpie is a young whale not previously seen in our waters, and as such does not have a photo in the catalogs. We spotted her a few times in June and on one of those encounters she earned her name, Kelpie. She was rolling through the kelp beds near Pipers Lagoon in Nanaimo and carrying Kelp on her nose as she swam in slow circles.

Today she was doing slow feeding dives North of Gabriola Island. These feeding dives are pretty important for young humpbacks, as they will soon be leaving our food-rich waters and heading for the warm tropics for breeding season. Even though it’s likely Kelpie is too young to be breeding they will still make the migration and as such they need to put on a lot of weight to sustain themselves over the winter months.

We also encountered a second humpback near Galiano Island known as Olympus. Olympus is a 3 year old female humpback, just like Kelpie they are too young to mate and produce calves, but they too will be making a migration south in a few short months.

Olympus has been hanging out in the same area since early July and we’ve come to learn this little whales personality quite well. This little whale is very feisty and has a bone to pick with Orcas. Back in July we witnessed her chasing a huge pod of Orcas! Typically it’s the other way around, but Olympus seemed keen on picking a fight. Thankfully those Orcas were not interested in a Whale based lunch on that day, so our little girl made it away just fine. Since then we’ve encountered her a few times, often hanging out with other juvenile Humpbacks.

Photo by Brad.

Photo by Brad.

Photo by Rebecca.

Photo by Rebecca.

Photo by Rebecca.

Photo by Rebecca.

Photo by Rebecca.

Photo by Rebecca.