Today we found not one, not two, but three different humpbacks right in our backyard (off of Snake Island)! Today’s whales were ID’d as Strike (KEX0045), Qu?ušin/Raven (BCY1144), and MMY0223.

Strike has been a regular humpback for us this year. For about a month she was doing circles on the inside of the gulf islands just south of Dodd Narrows. For the last few weeks she seems to have abandoned this circling behaviour, being seen across the Strait of Georgia from the Sunshine Coast to the coast of Vancouver Island. When Strike migrates she will likely head to the Mexican breeding grounds where she has been cross matched to in the past. Last year she was seen travelling with a calf, so if the typical “calf every two years” pattern continues we hope to see her with another one next summer!

MMY0223 is another humpback we’ve seen quite a few times this year. They do not have a nickname yet, but they seem to enjoy travelling with others as we rarely encounter them alone. During our last tour we saw them travelling with a friend off of the Sunshine Coast! These animals can travel up to 100 miles in a day so crossing the Strait isn’t much of a trip for them, since it’s only about 15 nm across.

The last whale we encountered today was a new-to-us humpback - Qu?ušin/Raven (BCY1144). Qu?ušin is pronounced Qu-ushin - it means Raven in the Nuu-chah-nulth language. This is one of our more ‘mysterious’ humpbacks - they are relatively new to our area with only 4 confirmed HappyWhale sightings on Vancouver Island’s west coast at the time of posting this blog. Our encounter with them may be one of their first times being confirmed in the Salish Sea. Their sex is currently unknown, but we do know they are at least 8 years old. They have had a handful of sightings around Hawaii dating back to 2017.

It’s the typical time of year that we start to see humpbacks in the area that aren’t as commonly seen since ones from further north may be migrating through the area on their journey south, or it may just be random luck! Doesn’t matter why, we just enjoy getting to add to our growing list of humpbacks!

We are also just as excited to be seeing Strike and MMY0223 still as we usually would think that the humpbacks would be starting their migrations down south this time of year. The departure time from each feeding and breeding ground does depend on many factors, including the individual whale! It will be interesting to see how long we see these whales hanging out in our waters! Some humpbacks are even known to stay in our waters over the winter and not migrate, although that is rare.

Around this time last year, around Snake Island was a humpback hotspot well into December, it will be interesting to see if that’s the case again this year! Only time will tell so stay tuned to our blog to see how the tour go for the rest of the year!

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen.

November 12th - Strike, Raven, and MMY0223 by Entrance Island

© Vancouver Island Whale Watch 2018-2024. All Rights Reserved.