July 20th 10:30 AM - MMX0007 Bond
I like my ocean shaken, not stirred.
We are inspired by the name of our humpback whale today! We left the harbour and headed south, through the Strait of Georgia to a report of a humpback whale travelling off the coast of Galiano Island.
This whale’s ID number is MMX0007, can you see how they earned the nickname Bond?
Bond is a Hawaii whale, meaning they make the long migration to the Hawaiian Islands every winter for the breeding season. Bond does not yet have a confirmed gender, but has been seen in the Salish Sea since 2014 according to Happy Whale.
Our humpbacks are part of the North Eastern Pacific population that migrate to Hawaii, Mexico and Central America every winter. Many of the Hawaiian humpbacks will travel all the way to parts of Alaska to feed, but a handful stop here in the Salish Sea for us to see. A whale swimming to Hawaii from Alaska can take up to 8 weeks of non-stop swimming to reach the breeding grounds. Humpbacks of the Salish Sea make a 3000-mile journey to reach their breeding grounds in Hawaii and they do it without eating! Our humpbacks travel to our highly productive cold waters to feed in the summers on small fish, krill and plankton. They will eat nearly 3000lbs of food a day to put on enough weight to carry them through the breeding season. It’s a long 4-6 months without food once they leave our waters for the south.
Enjoy the photos taken by marine naturalists Carmen Murphy and Val watson
Bond surfacing with Galiano in the background. Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Bond doing a shallow fluke. Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Photo by Val Watson.
Our vessel Cascadia with Mount Baker in the background. Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.
A gull on a log. We like to call logs like these aircraft carriers! Photo by Val Watson.
He wasn’t impressed that we woke him up. Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.
Photo by Val Watson.
Although he didn’t show off the whole fluke, this was enough to get a positive ID from our humpback! Photo by Val Watson.
A couple of Bald Eagles on a marker on Snake Island. Can you spot them both? Photo by Carmen Murphy.
Photo by Carmen Murphy.