July 8th 10:30 AM - Chinook and Scoop in the Strait of Georgia
We left the harbour with our two zodiacs in search of whales on the morning of July 8th. We ventured out with our two open boats Keta and Cascadia. Usually, the boats will have basically the same trip, seeing the same whales, but that wasn't the case this morning! Although both vessels viewed humpback whales, each vessel was with a different animal! Both boats headed north-east this morning, Keta searching for whales up near south Lasqueti Island and Cascadia searching between Texada and North Thormanby Islands. Both boats heard a report of a humpback off the coast of Entrance Island back near Nanaimo and headed south-west to search. Keta made it across the straight to find our reported humpback, but Cascadia spotted another humpback before even making it to the reported whale!
The two whales that were being viewed were Chinook and Scoop. Originally, Chinook was thought to be the whale known as Windy, but further photo evidence told us that Chinook paid us a visit this morning. Chinook was spotted about 20 km off the coast of North Nanaimo, within the Straight of Georgia by Cascadia. Scoop, our reported whale, was spotted off of Entrance Island by Keta.
KEY0020 Chinook, viewed by Cascadia is of an unknown gender, but we do know that they spend their winter months in the breeding grounds off of Hawaii! All our humpbacks typically make a yearly migration south to their breeding grounds. For the humpbacks of British Columbia, the breeding grounds are either Hawaii, Mexico, or South America.
On the other hand, BCX0870 Scoop, we have a greater amount of information about! She is a confirmed female humpback, since she has been seen in the Salish sea in three different years with a calf in tow. She had a calf in 2016, one in 2018 Holey Moley, and another last year in 2021.
Chinook was very active this day, showing their tail many times and even breaching once really close to our boat! Also spotted by Cascadia were some harbour seals on Snake Island resting on rocks and doing their best to blend in.
Scoop was less active than her usual self, but still ended up showing us her lovely tail! Other than Scoop, also spotted on this trip by our vessel Keta were harbour porpoises, who were too quick and shy to be featured in photograph.
Photos this trip were taken by Naturalists Carmen and Vanessa.
Chinook KEY0020 showing off the scaring on their dorsal. Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Chinook is coming straight for us! Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Chinook going for a dive. Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Chinook? Carmen told us they breached, but I dunno seems fishy ;) Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Chinooks fluke print! Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Rock sausages, or are those harbour seals? Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Scoop BCX0870 showing us a tail. Photo by Vanesa Vereschahen.