It doesn’t seem to matter how long you’ve been working as a naturalist on the water, there’s always something new to see. Every year humpbacks return to the Salish sea, and given the incredible site fidelity they show, it’s typically the same population we see from year to year. Today, however, we had 2 new whales!
We found Niagara, a well-known whale in our region, just south of Lasqueti Island. She was doing some long feeding dives, so after we ID’d her we left to find someone spending a bit more time at the surface.
We came across T065A4, Ellifrit, travelling alone. The members of the T065A pod have been travelling away from their families on and off for a while. Ellifrit and her brother Indy were travelling with members from another pod in the San Juan Islands days before.
After our stop with Ellifrit, we continued on to find our 2 new humpbacks. Diamond was the first we spotted near the Francis Point Lighthouse. There is very little known about Diamond, as they only have 2 sightings on Happy Whale, both in Hawaii. So we know Diamond winters in Hawaii, but since they aren’t a calf, we have no idea who their mom is, nor where they typically are found feeding in the summers. Diamond could be a frequent visitor to the Salish Sea but spends most of their time in less travelled waters, resulting in fewer sightings.
After Diamond we found Sergeant, another new whale to us! Sergeant has 2 previous sightings in the Salish Sea near Denman Island, but otherwise, all their sightings are from Alaska or the very far north shores of BC. Sergeant also does not have a confirmed gender yet. They were doing a lot of feeding today, which isn’t uncommon during our tours, but the technique he was using sure is! Sergeant was bubble net feeding! Humpbacks near Vancouver island have been documented bubble net feeding for a few years now, but it’s still a relatively new behaviour. This type of feeding relies on using bubble curtains, made by the whale’s blow hole, to trap and confuse fish. When whales are solo they will swim in a straight line blowing the bubbles and this creates an invisible barrier that confuses the fish, allowing the whale to turn around and swim back through the confused cloud of fish swallowing everything in their path.

In the afternoon we encountered the T099s, Bella and her kids Holly, Barakat, Puck, and T099E who was born just last year.
This pod of Bigg’s orca were travelling, tail slapping and spy hopping around Captain passage. This pod isn’t one we encounter too often, but they are fairly easy to ID thanks to Holly who has a few notches near the tip of her dorsal. Her younger brother Puck is entering puberty and his dorsal is beginning to grow rapidly, which means he no longer matches his ID photo in the catalogue. He is sporting a new notch near the tip of his dorsal fin, and some new scaring in his saddle patch that makes him very easy to ID now.

Below are the best photos from our tour taken by Marine naturalists Aly Kohlman, Vanessa Vereschahen, and Carmen murphy.

August 11th - Exotic humpbacks as well as the T099s!

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