It was a humpback filled day on the 13th! We started the morning with a pair of humpbacks, Divot and Fallen Knight, near Thrasher Rock. This pair of ladies was slowly travelling around and foraging off the shallow shoals, however Divot was displaying some interesting behavior. She kept slowly lifting her rostrum (nose) out of the water. While not concerning behavior, it was interesting to see. We often get only a slight glimpse of their bumpy noses when they surface to breath, or sometimes when they are lunge feeding. In the past we’ve also has some juveniles parading around with kelp piled on their rostrum, as if they are showing off their new toy. We aren’t sure what Divot was trying to accomplish by lifting her nose so high up, but it gave us a nice look at that beautiful bumpy face. Fallen Knight, Divots travel companion, has a very distinct fluke, with both edges curling inwards. We aren’t sure whether this is the result of entanglement when she was younger, forcing her fins to remain curled, or if this is a birth defect. Either way it doesn’t seem to have impacted her health as she has returned year after year, and has even brought back 2 calves to our waters, once in 2019 and once in 2021. We are not-so-patiently waiting for next summer to see if both of these girls return with calves. Over the last few years we’ve noticed a growing trend amongst the female humpbacks. Pregnant humpbacks seem to be hanging out in small groups during the feeding season. Now we never know who is pregnant until they return the following year, but we have started keeping lists of all the female humpbacks that are travelling in groups. While Fallen Knight hasn’t been paired up all summer, Divot is rarely seen alone. Only time will tell in this case!

We didn’t have to travel far to see our next pair of whales, which were just a bit further north west. Just north of Acorn nd Gaviola Island were 2 mom and calf pairs. It was Big Mama and Mammoth again! These 2 pairs were no technically travelling together, but it wouldn’t be hard to spot the blows of one pair while watchin the other. Mammoth and her calf were taking an afternoon cat nap while Big Mama’s kid was having the whale equivalent of the zoomies: cartwheeling, tail slapping, pec slapping, and even breaching!
This little one is full of energy, and hopefully that means mom is well fed and they are both ready for their migration.

In the afternoon we found a group of 4 humpbacks east of Thrasher rock, where we had Divot and Fallen Knight earlier in the day. This group of whales was Neowise, Harpy, Zigzag, and Nike. The 4 of them were fairly active today, tail slapping, pec slapping, and even mugging the boats! Nike is a known mugger, but always gentle. Carefully inspecting the boats after they have shut down, watching the people above from below the waves. Nike is known to travel with youngsters and we often see him displaying mugging behavior when they kids are around. Mugging is such an odd behavior to engage in, with some humpbacks being known to mug frequently and others avoiding boats, we often wonder why they do it, and how do they know it’s safe. We like to think that as an experienced mugger Nike knows when and how to approach boats. He often comes from the side, not the back where the motors are or the front where he’s less likely to be seen. He also often waits until the boats are motionless, if not completely shut down, before making his approach. Has he been doing this long enough that he knows what is and isn’t safe? Like any experienced human partaking in dangerous activities, he must have learned over time how to tell “good boats” from “bad boats”. While we don’t really like to see young ones learning this behavior because it can lead to dangerous situations, it is slightly comforting to think that an experienced mugger like Nike is around to teach the younger whales the do’s and don’ts of boat mugging. Hopefully he will teach them enough to keep them out of trouble in the future.
Mugging a boat, from a humpback’s perspective, must be quite interesting. All these weird looking, colorful creatures, gathered on these bright colored platforms, making weird noises at him in the water. It must be quite exciting for him.

Harpy and Neowise are both 2 years old now, and will likely be heading for Mexico soon, with Nike likely right behind them. Zigzag however will be off to Hawaii for the winter.
Neowise still has the fishing line wrapped around his fluke on both sides, hopefully he will be rid of those lines soon!

After our time with the group of four we travelled north to where we had Big Mama and her calf in the morning only to find Fallen knight and Divot again. The girls were still slowly traveling about and foraging for food in the late afternoon sun.

Below are the photos taken by marine naturalists Janine Van Der Linden and Vanessa Vereschahen.