The Humpback madness continued today as we stopped to hang out with Honu (KEY0030). Honu was feeding and diving between Snake island and Entrance Island. Honu has spent quite a lot of time outside the Nanaimo harbour this year so we’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with them this year. Honu does not have a confirmed sex at this point but is known to be a Hawaii whale. They were first seen in 2018 but were not a calf, suggesting they are at least 7 years old. While humpbacks reach maturity around age 8, this means if Honu is a female, we may see them return with a calf in the next few years! Honu was showing off their beautiful tail with almost every dive, showing off the markings we us to ID them. Most of us look for a small black t shape on the right end of their tail. It’s a small marking, but it stands out against all the white in their tail. Honu also has a distinct white line on the right side of their dorsal, making it fairly easy to ID them from just their dorsal should they ever decide to keep their tail hidden from us.

After sending our time with Honu we continued the search, heading south, where we found Two Spot (KEY0010) and Trooper (KEX0026). Two Spot has been hanging out in the spot for a bit, yesterday they were with a big group of whales in almost the same spot as today. You can read about that encounter here.
Two Spot and Trooper were travelling slowly, rolling in the waters, and even treated us to a very close pass-by, allowing us to get a good look at Two Spot’s beautiful white flukes under the water.

Trooper is a very distinct humpback in the Salish Sea. Trooper has been seen in the Salish Sea since 2018, and is a fairly small whale, suggesting they are likely 5-8 years old. When they arrived in the Salish Sea they did not bare the markings that earned them their name. Between April 25th and March 13th, 2018 Trooper was involved in a boat strike in Howe Sound, north of Vancouver, Thankfully they survived the encounter, but they now have a large gash scar behind their dorsal fin. Many of our humpback whales in the Salish Sea bare the scars of propellors and boat strikes. As humpbacks rest they typically lay just below the surface, making them difficult to see when you’re a vessel travelling at high speeds. Even a humpback not at rest may surface unexpectedly. It’s very important to be aware of the signs and always watch for whales on the water to reduce the risk of boat strikes. We started using a new app this year called “whale report” to further reduce the risk of strikes by large vessels. This app was developed by the Ocean Wise program and you can read more about it here. The information in our reports can help large vessels, like ferries, know the location of whales and reduce the risk of strikes.

After our time was up with Trooper and Two Spot we continued on to find some harbour seals and California sea lions before returning to port.
The photos today were taken by our marine naturalists Vanessa Vereschahen

We’ve had a lot of fish making quite the splash lately during tours! We believe these fish to be Coho salmon who should be spawning at this time of year. They are known for their acrobatic leaps and we’ve definitely been seeing a lot of that recently!

October 18th - Humpback Soup with Honu, Two Spot and Trooper

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