When we left the harbour on the morning of September 2nd searching for wildlife on the Salish Sea. We started our search up around north Nanaimo where there had been a few different humpbacks feeding for the last couple of days. We soon saw the blow in the distance that showed us that there was a humpback in the area. Once the whale went for a dive and we saw the bottom of their tail flukes we recognized her as KEY0026 Potamus! Potamus is a female whale who was born in 2011 to Wink! She has been cross-matched to the breeding grounds in Hawaii! These are also the same breeding grounds that her mom frequents. It’s thought that since the calves travel to and from the breeding grounds with their mothers they will keep returning to the same area, although there are some exceptions to this that have been recorded.

While we were watching Potamus we got word of another humpback in the area so we left her behind and headed over to another humpback hotspot, Halibut bank! Halibut bank is an area of high productivity near the middle of the Strait of Georgia between Nanaimo and Sechelt. Banks in the ocean cause upwelling of the deeper ocean water as it hits what’s basically an underwater hill. When the tide moves in and out forcing the deeper waters to the surface bringing the nutrients dissolved in the colder waters with them. When these nutrient mix with the surface waters the plankton use those nutrients and the sunlight to grow. This forms a strong base to the food chain and draws other animals in such as krill and small schooling fish. Since this is what the Humpbacks are feeding on it also draws them into the area quite often. Today was one such occasion as our boats got to see two different humpback whales feeding here. It was KEY0001 Windy! Windy is another whale that spends his winters in the breeding grounds in Hawaii! Unlike Potamus, we don’t know when Windy was born, but his first sighting that we know of was in 2013, making him at least 9 years old. Travelling nearby to windy was another humpback, BCX1057 Divot! Divot is a large female humpback whale who also spends her winters in the Hawaiian breeding grounds. We estimate that she is at least 19 years old based on her first recorded calf being born in 2011. The youngest we have recorded a humpback giving birth is actually from her daughter Zephyr, who had a calf when she was only 8 years old. Since Zephyr she also had a calf born in 2014, Olympus who was born in 2018, and another calf in 2021.

We think she is likely older than 19 based purely on size, since she makes all the humpbacks she has been seen travelling with look very small in comparison.

Today both these humpbacks were doing feeding dives while we watched them, nicely showing off their tail flukes for us as they went.

In the afternoon we also got lucky and got to see Sherwina, one of our favourite humpbacks! She was still feeding off of north Nanaimo. She also winters in Hawaii. She is a smaller whale, and her first recorded calf was in 2021, meaning she is likely at least 9 years old.

Enjoy all the photos taken during the trip by our naturalists Janine and Vanessa.

September 2nd - Humpback Day!

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