This morning we got to spend some time with KEY0034 Sherwina! She was travelling and doing feeding dives as we watched her in the Strait of Georgia. We know that Sherwina is a female humpback whale as we have had her come back to the Salish Sea with calves before, in 2021.

She is a special whale as she has many different names. Sometimes when a whale is spotted by different research groups at around the same time or in areas that don’t share sightings very frequently, they can end up with a couple of different names. Sherwina is one of these whales as she is also known as Lonestar and Dreamer! Although most humpbacks have site fidelity, meaning they return to the same breeding and feeding ground year after year, she seems to switch. She has been recorded spending her summers feeding off of both the Coast of California and the Coast of BC. This is likely why she has a couple of different names, as in California she is more commonly called Sherwina and here in BC she is more commonly known as Dreamer. She was also called Lonestar by people in BC but it has become less common as there is another whale which shares that nickname.

We prefer the name Sherwina here at VIWW because of the meaning behind the name. It means paint dipped, referring to the way the white colouration on the bottom of her tail flukes gives the appearance of being dipped in white paint. It’s also not only the nicknames that she has multiple, she also has quite a few scientific names including MMY0183, BCY0961, CRC-16613, and her Keta number: KEY0034.

No matter what we call her it’s great that she has been spending time so close to home and we have been getting to see her quite often!

Please enjoy all the photos taken by our Naturalists Aly Kohlman and Janine Van Der Linden during this trip!