It was a warm and sunny morning and everyone was excited to get on the water to search for whales. We departed the harbour and rounded the corner of Protection island when our naturalist spotted the first blows in the distance near Snake Island.
A pair of humpbacks, Olympus (KEX0051) and Sherwina (KEY0034), were zig-zagging and circling just southeast of Snake island. They seemed to trade time at the surface, which made for a great show. Sherwina would surface off the port side, catching her breath after a long feeding dive. After a few minutes she arched her back lifting her tail and diving down again in search of her prey, small schooling fish and krill. As Sherwina headed for the depths Olympus surfaced off our starboard side. Like Sherwina she had returned from feeding and was catching her breath. The girls traded off like this for nearly an hour as they circled wide around the boat. Occasionally coming a little closer, but always diving before getting too close. Olympus even displayed some trumpeting on a few of her surfaces, a loud and powerful exhale similar to the trumpeting noise of an elephant.
The whales were circling in the same spot, allowing us to shut down and enjoy the sound of their breath when they surfaced. With no wind, it was nearly a perfect time spent with these two girls. Both Sherwina and Olympus will begin their trip to Hawaii in a few short weeks and we won’t see them again until at least April of next year. We’re very grateful for every second we get to spend with them during these late October days, knowing soon they will slip away while we aren’t watching, and we will have to wait patiently for their return

As we said our goodbyes to Olympus and Sherwina we began heading south around Entrance island, but it was only minutes before the next blow was spotted in the distance. A single humpback east of Entrance island was heading south. It turned out to be Poptart (KEY0029). Poptart is another confirmed Hawaii whale and is the 2016 calf of Big Mama, a well-known humpback here in the Salish Sea. Big Mama is thought to be the first, or one of the first, humpbacks to return to the Salish Sea since whaling forced them out in the early 1900s. Since 1997 Big Mama has returned every year, and this year she is back with her 7th calf. Poptart was on quite the mission as they headed south at a steady pace doing deeper dives, so we left them to their travels and continued our search heading south.

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalist Rebeka Pirker.

Olympus (KEX0051) in front of Entrance Island.

Sherwina (KEY0034) in front of Entrance Island.

Poptart (KEY0029) - she has a new notch in her trailing edge that doesn’t match up with her ID photos.

We stopped in at Saturnina Island, one of the Flat Top islands off the southeast end of Gabriola. This small island is one of our frequent stops as a reliable place to see Pacific harbour seals hauled out on the shores. Depending on the time of year Turkey vultures and Bald eagles are plentiful in the area as well. Today there were dozens of seals lounging on the rocks, enjoying the sun. They were especially active with their yoga today, stretching and posing in some very interesting positions. Our naturalists definitely took too many photos of them, but how can you resist when they are that cute!

After leaving our seals we cruised through Gabriola pass, the currents were strong and a few sea lions were fishing in the pass as two bald eagles watched from above. We travelled through Dodd Narrows where the current was again very strong. We had to move extra slow today as there were several large male Steller sea lions fishing in the narrows. After making it through we stopped to see the California sea lions at the log booms near Harmac. They were still a bit feisty after their summer at the breeding grounds, and a few large Steller males in the mix were stirring the pot and fighting amongst themselves, but everyone seemed to be enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

October 16th - Humpbacks Olympus, Sherwina, and Poptart!

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