Our morning boats got to spend their trip with Zephyr and her calf. These 2 were doing some very deep dives and feeding. Baby Humpback whales only get one year with their mom to learn how to forage and dive. They rely on moms milk for food for 6 months to a year as they learn to forage along side mom. Even though they may not be foraging for their own fish they are still practicing and diving with mom. Throughout the summer a calves' dive times slowly increase as they build their lung capacity and practice holding their breath longer and longer. Just like little kids, Humpback calves can be stubborn when it comes to practicing and learning new things, and sometimes they put up a fight and won’t do deep dives with mom. To encourage their calves to dive deeper and prepare them, sometimes mom will make deeper dives and stay down longer, encouraging the calf to follow her. This seemed to be what was happening this day, as Zephyr did deep dives and her calf circled and dove repeatedly.

In the afternoon we had some Humpback soup with 3 different encounters all in the same general area. Porlier Pass and the shelf that runs along Valdez island have been a hot spot for our Humpbacks this year. It’s an odd trip if you drive through this region and don’t spot at least one blow in the distance. On this fine afternoon we encountered Delta and Corona, Raptor, and Fader and friend near Valdez Island.

Delta and Corona have been dubbed the "Covid pair”, it’s only a coincidence that these whales are hanging out together, as they were named before the pandemic, and obviously they don’t know the nicknames they were given. It’s still funny to see this pair traveling and feeding together given their nicknames.

Raptor was off on her own, feeding and traveling, filling her belly with delicious food. We know Raptor is a female, as last year she was traveling with a calf who was named Harpy, after the Harpy Eagle. Humpbacks can produce a calf every 2-4 years on average, and we’ve seen plenty of our Humpback moms this year who also had calves in 2019. We’re curious to see if Raptor returns next year with a calf or if she decided to take an extra year off before getting pregnant again.

Our 3rd group of whales was Fader and their unknown friend. This friend was being camera shy, making it hard to get that tail ID photo. These 2 were doing some lunge feeding, pec slapping and even treated our boats to a breach! We often get asked about the best time to see a whale breech, and there isn’t really an answer to that. Humpbacks do not have a time that they breech, it’s an unpredictable behaviour that can happen for a variety of reasons, but it boils down to whether or not the whale feels like it.

When Humpbacks are in our waters they have the ever important job of getting nice and fat, because they rely on those fat deposits to carry them through the winter. After they leave us they won’t eat again until they return in the spring, and so they need to conserve that energy. For males that energy is used in the breeding grounds when they fight for females attention, which often means breeching, slapping and fighting with other males. For females, they need that extra energy to carry a calf to term, or raise that calf after they are born.
When you are trying to get fat the last thing you want to do is exercise excessively, so it makes sense that they don’t do it often, as a single breech can use as much energy as a human running a full marathon! Given that humpbacks often breech more than once, this is a lot of energy to be burning. Humpbacks do still breech though, and is often an effort to knock parasites off their body, communicate over long distances, or express excitement. If Fader and their friend had found some good food and were excited, this could explain their breeching. And with other Humpbacks in the area, it may have also been a call to friends that they found a great lunch!

Enjoy the photos of our whales our naturalists got on this beautiful Humpback filled day!