Two of our vessels left the Nanaimo Harbour in search of whales on the morning of June 30th. We headed North today since there were reports of humpbacks seen from the Nanoose Bay Area. Our two boats spread out in search, and it wasn’t too long before we spotted blows in the distance!

As we approached the blows we saw the small dorsals and long bodies of the humpback whales slowly making their way through the water! Soon their backs arched above the waves and their flukes soon crested the surface, showing us their tail flukes before diving below the surface.

From looking at the photos taken during these dives we could determine who it was we were looking it! We use any distinct colouration present on the tail flukes, scars from barnacles, other scars, or looking at the trailing edge patterns to identify our humpback whales.

Today we determined that the whales we were watching were KEX0002 Europa and BCY0057 Niagara! We’ve noticed this year that we have had male and female humpbacks travelling together. This pair is a great example of this since we know that Europa is female since she has brought calves back to the Salish Sea in 2017, 2019, and 2021 and Niagara is presumed male since they are 22 years old and have never been seen with a calf before.

These two aren’t the only male-female pairing that we have been seeing this year with Nike (male) travelling with Hydra (female) and a couple of other examples. Although this could be a mere coincidence it is still interesting to note.

All the the best photos from the day taken by our onboard naturalists, Janine and Vanessa, are below!