During both of our tours today we got to travel with a mother and her new calf. We found the pair travelling north through Trincomali Channel and followed along as they travelled through the pass and into the Strait of Georgia. This mom and calf pair were travelling very close to each other. Mom would surface and the baby would be right on top of her. This is common behaviour amongst mom and calf pairs. Humpbacks for intense bonds to their calves for the year they spend together. Moms will whisper to their calves and touch their babies with their pec fins just like human mothers touching their babies. Baby humpbacks will often catch a ride on mom’s head or tuck under the pec fin to be pulled in her wake when they get sleepy.

We found this pair again in the Strait of Georgia during the afternoon tour where they were continuing their speedy travelling. Mom must have been teaching her youngster how to deep dive as they would disappear for quite some time before reappearing for several breaths at the surface.
While we were with these two whales they never actually showed off their tails for us. This made it fairly difficult to ID them. All we had to go off of was the dorsal of mom and calf. We had a few ideas of who mom could be but without that tail, there was no way to confirm.
This is where working with the other whale watching companies comes in handy! One of the Vancouver companies was on the scene when mom lifted the corner of her tail, which was all we needed! From just the corners we were able to ID this momma as Smiley! We were all very excited to see Smiley with a new calf as her last calf, Chip, was born in 2017. Chip unfortunately was struck by a Washington ferry and did not make it. We have high hopes that Smiley’s new calf will be around for a very long time and we’ll get to watch them thrive in the Salish Sea.

Enjoy the photos of Smiley and her new calf taken by marine naturalists Rebeka Pirker, Vanessa Vereschahen, and Carmen Murphy.

July 30th - Smiley and calf!

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