It was oh so spooky as we left the harbour on our final open-boat tour of the season on Halloween! The sun was out and shining as we took Keta across the Strait of Georgia towards the Sunshine Coast, which seems to be a hotspot for whales recently! Working with boats based out of Vancouver we soon came across out first pair of humpbacks of the day. It was Smiley (KEY0019) and her 2022 calf! These two were travelling close to shore, seeming to be doing feeding dives. It can be hard to tell if a humpback is feeding or not since most of their feeding activity is done under the water. When they are doing longer, more sporadic dives we usually assume that’s what’s happening. With these whales today we did get a break from the long dives when Smiley’s calf started to get playful! They were lifting their tail out of the water more than usual and rolling around a bit as well. We managed to get a good photo of this young whales tail flukes which we will be able to use later, when the calf returns to our waters in the follow years without Smiley around. Since in the first year humpback calves don’t lift their tails up like the adults do, any photos we can get are important to be able to cross match them in the future.

When our time was up with these two we headed over to another report of two humpbacks close by! These two were further out into the Strait, in a little more waves than Smiley and her calf. We were able to easily ID one of these humpbacks as Split Fluke (BCX1068) and with a bit more work the other is Remie (BCX1786)! Getting an ID for Rem was a bit more diffcult since our photo we used was slightly out of focus but we managed to make the match, with some help from our friends at Keta Coastal Conservation.

Split Fluke is an easy to ID whale thanks to the large v-shaped split in her tail flukes. She was born to Heather in 2006, making her 16 years old! She is getting ready to make the trip down to the Mexican breeding grounds where she has been cross matched to in the past where she may be breeding or having a calf this year. She last returned to the Salish Sea with a calf last year (2021) and she has been consistent with bringing one every two years so far, so hopefully she has a little one in tow next season!

Humpbacks will start their migration in the fall and return to our waters in the late spring / early summer. Each whale is different on their timing of leaving and returning to the different feeding and breeding grounds. We are also curious if the unseasonably warm weather we received this October will effect the humpbacks migration. Time will tell!

In addition to the whales we got to see a lot of other wildlife. Before our stop with Smiley and her calf we went to one of our favourite Steller Sea Lion haul-outs; the white islets! This is a small island with steep white cliffs that the sea lions hangout on, and it makes for some beautiful photos. We also got to see some Harbour seals closer to home and were being watched by a beautiful Bald Eagle!

Our onboard marine naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen captured some beautiful moments during this trip which you can see below!