Another day in the Strait of Georgia searching for whales had us travelling down towards the Washington border. One of the Vancouver companies had a humpback early in the morning near Active Pass but had to leave that whale before we were able to get down to them. This meant we had to put on our searching eyes!
As we travelled southward we stopped outside Active Pass to scan the waters. Right as we were getting ready to leave and look elsewhere our naturalists, Rebeka, spotted a blow closer to the shore. We had relocated the whale! A single humpback had just dove, heading deep down to look for food. So we waited and watched to see if they would return. This humpback was doing some very deep dives, so it took a while, but eventually, they surfaced again. This whale was clearly hungry, wasting no time at the surface before diving again to search for dinner.

We were waiting patiently for this whale to surface and hopefully show off that beautiful fluke so we could learn the identity of our lone humpback. We weren’t sure we would get the opportunity, they seemed to sense the camera and either didn’t lift their tail or made sure they were facing the wrong direction for the photo. Thankfully, right as we were getting ready to leave our friendly giant, they gave us what we wanted. A perfect photo of their beautiful tail!
Using the markings on their tail we were able to identify this whale as Monarch, Kraken and Pyramid! Wait, 3 names for one whale? This whale also has several ID numbers. CRC-13704. BCZ0180, FIBB-3BB406, SPLASH-450039. Most whales have 1 number associated with them and can have many names depending on the areas they are sighted in. Monarch and Kraken are both names used in the Salish Sea and we aren’t sure where they earned the name Pyramid. Most whales also typically have 1 number, sometimes 2 if they were sighted by different organizations before catalogues were readily available. Unlike our orcas, who are numbered and catalogued by government researchers, most humpbacks are monitored, numbered and named by non-profit organizations that research and track the whales. There is a government catalogue for our Humpbacks as well, which can add even more names and numbers! Each non-profit usually has their own catalogue for the whales they’ve seen. These days the non-profits and governments tend to work together, checking other catalogues to make sure we don’t assign new numbers and names to whales that have already been documented to avoid further confusion like this. However, with so many whales and several catalogues, it’s easy for some whales to get missed and end up with new designations.

We watched Monarch/ Kraken/ Pyramid surfacing and diving for an hour along the shores of Galiano before we travelled back north through the Strait of Georgia, stopping to look for seals and sea lions and birds along the way.

Enjoy the photos of our Humpback and other wildlife taken during the tour by Rebeka Pirker and Rebecca Stirling.

June 3rd 10:30 AM - Kraken/ Monarch/ Pyramid

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