It seems Humpback Land has returned to the Nanaimo area as we often start our days with reports of humpbacks seen from Gabriola to Lantzville. On this fine morning, we left the harbour and looped around the north end of Gabriola Islands heading for Thrasher Rock and a report of humpbacks. We hardly made it out of the harbour when we spotted our first blow. A humpback was swimming south towards the Flat top Islands near Entrance Island Lighthouse. This lone whale turned out to be a well-known male in the area named Snoopy! Snoopy is one of the easiest humpbacks to ID on the water thanks to the large hole on his right fluke. Snoopy was confirmed a male a few years ago when he was photographed breaching with his “sea snake” on display. Humpbacks are not easy animals to sex, as there is no clear difference between males and females like there is with orca. To tell a humpback’s sex you either have to wait for them to return with a calf - meaning they are female - or you have to get lucky with your camera! Typically this means getting a photo of their hemispherical lobe, or lack of. This small lobe is a bump located on the whale’s peduncle and is present only on female humpbacks. Usually, this photo is captured when they breach, but you have to be at the right angle and have no water spray covering the area, so it is a tricky photo to get. Snoopy made it easy by putting himself on display for the photographer, so we didn’t even have to look for the small lobe.

We watched Snoopy as he made his way south and as we got ready to leave and go look for seals and sea lions we spotted a few more blows headed for the same place we had planned to go - the Flat Top Islands off the south end of Gabriola.

These 2 whales turned out to be Divot and Sherwina, two females who are also very easy to ID. Sherwina has a unique dorsal fin and Divot has a noticeable notch in her fluke shared only by one other whale, so a quick dorsal match confirmed her identity. Divot is a confirmed grandmother, having returned to our waters with 4 calves. Her youngest calf, Zephyr, has brought back 2 of her own calves. Sherwina has also had 2 calves herself.
Over the last few years, we have noticed a growing trend in female humpbacks hanging out during the feeding season for extended periods of time, only to return the following year with calves. Are these mommy-to-be groups? We think so! We are hopeful that Sherwina and Divot will return next year with a pair of baby humpbacks for us to fawn over.

In the afternoon we found Sherwina and Divot in nearly the same spot, a bit spread out, but still foraging off the southeast side of Gabriola Island.
We also had another encounter in the afternoon - the T090’s! This small family of orca had travelled up through False Narrows and then along the shores near the Harmac pulp mill. Eagle and her kids Piglet, Tigger, and Kanga were displaying hunting behaviour near the log booms, but after being evaded seemed to turn to family social time. Everyone was spyhopping and rubbing against each other, and Kanga appeared to be barrel rolling over her siblings and mom. Several times the family seemed to stop in the water and would get very close together, rubbing against one another before picking up speed and travelling again.
Orca are very tactile animals and enjoy physical touch with family and friends.

Enjoy the photos from today’s tours taken by marine naturalists Beka Pirker, Carmen Murphy, and Vanessa Vereschahen.

August 20th - 3 humpbacks and some orca at sunset

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