July 5th - A bunch of humpbacks in the Strait!
We got our first proper taste of Humpback-soup today near Parksville as both our morning and afternoon tours got to hang out with 4 humpbacks!
Incognito, Graze, Graphite, and Strike were stirring up the waters, splashing about and showing off their beautiful tails and pec fins.
Our humpbacks were excited by something, be it the food they were likely dining on, each others company, or having an audience as they played in the waters. We got to see pec-slapping, tail-lobbing and even heard some trumpeting. Trumpeting is a loud sound, similar to an elephants trumpet, that humpbacks produce through their blow-holes. At one point we even got to see our girl Strike doing some chin slapping!
After spending time with our splash happy humpbacks we checked in on the seals and sea lions before returning to the docks for the evening.
Enjoy the photos of our wildlife taken by marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Janine Van Der Linden.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Graphite. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Graphite now, in 2022. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Baby Graphite in 2019
Humpbacks tails can change significantly from year to year, which means the catalogues we use can become outdated quickly. Whether it’s from aging or injury humpbacks show up with new coloration, new scars and patterns, or in some cases, less color and pattern. We often have to update certain whales every year. It’s especially a problem with young whales, as a humpback calves tail can look drastically different from one summer to the next. Above is a great example of Graphite, Slate’s calf from 2019. When he first showed up in our waters he had a lot of smokey-grey coloration to his tail, but between 2019 and 2020 his tail darkened. Now he only has a thin trail of smokey grey along the edge of his tail. Believe it or not, the 2 photos above are the same whale just 3 years apart.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Chin-slapping Strike. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Strike tail-lobbing for the camera. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden
Can you see the marks on Strike (left) that we used to ID them? we keep catalogues of our whales on our boats so we can match them up and ID them when we are on the boats. This is Strike’s ID photo on the right.