May 15th - Humpbacks Pingu, Neowise, & friend in Trinchomali Channel

Rain or shine the whales are still around, they don’t mind, they’re already wet! Our guests climbed onto the semi-covered vessel and nestled inside her warm heated cabin to set out on the Salish Sea in search of whales. They began their trip heading south through Dodd Narrows and into the sheltered waters of the Gulf Islands. Travelling along Galiano Islands’ west banks they spotted the blows in the distance of humpbacks.
Our boat stopped to watch these gentle giants, surfacing slowly before diving deep to feed on krill, plankton and small fish. Travelling from Mexico and Hawaii over the last several weeks, the humpbacks have returned to our nutrient-rich waters to build up their fat stores before they once again start the migration south in the fall.
These whales were low-fluking, which means they weren’t lifting their tails very high at all. This made it tricky to ID them but eventually, we were able to figure out who they were. We had Neowise, Pingu and a friend.

It was exciting to see Neowise, as he is the 2020 calf of Heather. We spent a lot of time with Neowise and his mom in 2020 and had a few encounters with him last year as well. It’s great to see him doing well and returning to the same feeding grounds.
Not much is known about Pingu, a young whale that was first seen in the Salish Sea in 2019. It appears that Pingu did make a short trip to the breeding grounds, but we aren’t sure if they went to Mexico or Hawaii. All we know is that they were spotted in the southern Salish Sea in early December, which means a very late departure from our waters if they even went south at all. We are receiving more and more reports of humpbacks staying in BC waters throughout the winter instead of venturing south. So it is possible that Pingu didn’t travel at all, but remained just out of eyesight for the winter. Humpback sightings in the winter are not as common, mostly because they should be migrating south, but also whale watching companies, and most people, stop venturing out on the water in the cold months and most sightings come from shore reports. With fewer people around and looking whales that do stay around go pretty unnoticed.

We watched our humpbacks diving for an hour before we left them and headed to look for other mammals.
Enjoy the photos taken during the tour by Marine Naturalist Rebecca Stirling.

Neowise doesn’t mind the rain!

Cruising along the shore

Neowise going for a dive

Pingu

Still Pingu!

One of the best parts of rain: a rainbow!

Losing ground…fast!

Rinoceros auklet

Juvenile eagle

Peregrine falcon

Those are not stalactites!

Cormorants

Book your own Salish Sea excursion today!
We offer daily public tours at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm. You have a choice between our open-zodiac boats or a semi-covered boat to cruise through the islands in search of wildlife.
You can book your tour through our website, by calling our office at 250-667-5177, or visiting us in our harbour front office at #5 - 90 Front Street Nanaimo