It was a fresh day with no reports as all three of our boats left the Nanaimo harbour in search of whales. We were hopeful as our boats each began a different route, splitting up to cover as much ground as possible.
As we searched one of our boats made a pit stop at the Halibut Bank buoy to see some Steller sea lions lounging about. Then they continued on, searching for our elusive whales.

It wasn’t until we began heading back towards the harbour, after nearly 3 hours of searching, that we managed to find Scoop the humpback off Neck Point in Nanaimo. It’s always funny when we find whales that are so close to home after traveling so far to search. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day so the boat ride was just as enjoyable as our time with the whales. One of our boats traveled all the way north to Anderson Bay on Texada, and another up to the Sisters Islets off the north end of Lasqueti Island.

Scoop was travelling slowly and performing deep dives and showing off her lovely tail. Scoop has been frequenting our waters since at least 2005, spending her winters in Hawaii where she and has had three calves that we know of; her first calf was born in 2016, the second in 2018 and her last calf was born in 2021. Scoop has brough each of her babies back to the Salish Sea and taught them how to forage in our plentiful waters. Humpbacks can produce a single calf on average, every 2-4 years. That means there’s a chance our big girl could be carrying another baby this year. We are excited to have her back in the Salish Sea for another season.

After hanging out with Scoop we checked on some harbour seals, a bald eagle and some cormorants along Gabriola Island.

Enjoy the photos of our wildlife from the tours today taken by marine naturalists Carmen Murphy, Rebeka Pirker, and Vanessa Vereschahen

July 2nd - Scoop the Humpback

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