Today we had a special treat and got to visit two of our humpbacks from last season.
Orion made an appearance east of Porlier where he was showing off his beautiful tail for us. Orion is not a confirmed male, but it’s highly suspected they are given that they have been sighted in the Salish Sea since 2009 and have never been seen with a calf. Now, this doesn’t guarantee that Orion is male, they could be an infertile female. That is the one downside to sexing humpbacks. A lack of calf does not mean male. The only way to confirm a male is to get a photo of their ventral side (stomach/ lower body) to confirm. Female humpbacks have something called a hemispherical lobe whereas males do not.
Orion is one of our staff favourites as they frequent our region of the Salish Sea and always love to show off their tail, which is covered in unique marks. Orion certainly gets into some scraps during the breeding season as they sport new markings almost every year. This is another reason we suspect they are male, as they are likely fighting with other males during the breeding seasons and competing for females.

The second humpback we had today was Honu! Very little is known about Honu who first made their appearance in the Salish Sea in 2018. Based on sightings data from Happy Whale it seems that Honu spends most of their time in the San Juan Islands in northern Washington. They briefly came into the Strait of Georgia at the end of October and November in 2019, and then again in 2021.
We watched Honu a few times late last year and they quickly became a bit of a staff favourite because of their beautiful and easy-to-ID fluke. Honu is confirmed to winter in Hawaii!

Enjoy the photos of our whales and wildlife taken by marine naturalists Carmen Murphy, Vanessa Vereschahen, and Janine Van Der Linden.

July 28th - Honu and Orion return!

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