In the afternoon we found a staff favorite humpback near Porlier Pass, it was Snoopy! This large male humpback has a very distinct fluke, with a rather large chunk taken from the right side of his fluke. Snoopy was milling about and foraging in the waters. At this time Snoopy is likely having his last few meals before he begins his trek to Hawaii. Snoopy has been gracing us with his presence since at least 2010 and we always get excited when we see his big beautiful tail on the water.

After our time with snoopy we crossed the Strait heading for Point Roberts where we found T038A Dana and her 2 year old calf T038A2, travelling with T137 Loon and her kids, Jack, Tempest, and Wright. There are reports that Dana’s aunt T035 Lester and her 3 kids were nearby, but we were not able to see them from our position. Instead we got to watch Loon, Dana, and their kids hunting and tail slapping as they travelled into the Strait of Georgia.

On our way back to port we came across a trio of Humpback just east of Gabriola Pass. Divot, Neowise, and Harpy were traveling and foraging along the shallow rock shoals. We’ve seen Divot several times this year and are very familiar with her in our waters as she returns summer after summer to forage on our plentiful stocks. Neowise and Harpy were exciting whales to encounter, the 2020 calves of Heather and Raptor (respectively), have been hanging out together recently. It’s exciting to see them together because their moms, Heather and Raptor, are known to be good friends, hanging out and feeding together often. In fact, in 2019 when Heather and Raptor were pregnant with the pair they spent the entire summer together! Seeing the young ones hanging out and traveling together, knowing their moms were friends is very interesting. We hope to see this pair hanging out more in the future!

Unfortunately it was during this encounter when we noticed that Neowise has managed to get himself tangled up in some fishing line. While it doesn’t appear too serious now, we can see fishing line hanging off the left and right side of his flukes. Hopefully Neowise will be able to shake this line loose on his own, but we will be keeping our eyes open for him over the coming weeks and alerting DFO to his location and condition whenever we see him to get that line removed.
Whale entanglement is a big issue for our humpbacks, with over 50% of our humpbacks baring the scars of entanglement. It’s part of our job on the water to take notes about the whales condition and make sure the proper authorities are notified when the whales appear distressed, injured or entangled. Disentangling a whale can be a difficult process, and often people with the best intentions will try and remove lines on their own but this is dangerous and should be left to the properly trained teams. If an untrained person approaches a whale to free them from a line the whale may not know their intention and panic putting the lives of all involved at risk, or can even make the entanglement worse. It’s always best to call the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and update them with the whales location whenever you see a whale in distress.

All three of these whale should be nice and plump and preparing for the migration in just a few weeks. While we do know that Divot heads to Hawaii in the winters, Neowise has been traced to Mexico and Harpy hasn’t been traced to a breeding ground yet. Interestingly, Neowise’s mom Heather has not been traced to a breeding site either, but it’s likely she heads to Mexico given that’s where her son travels. Harpy and her mom Raptor have not been matched to a breeding ground either, but it wouldn’t surprise us if they were also Mexico whales given how close Raptor and Heather seemed to be the last time they were in our waters.

Regardless of where they go this winter we will be excited to see them all return next summer!

After leaving our humpbacks we stopped to check out some other wildlife before heading back to the docks. Enjoy the photos taken by Marine Naturalists Janine Van Der Linden and Cheyenne Brewster.

September 12th 3:30 PM - Snoopy in the Strait, Orca near Point Roberts, and a Trio of Humpbacks by Thrasher Rock

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