We pushed off the docks bright and early on the 14th and traveled out towards Thrasher Rock off Gabriola Island to find 2 humpbacks, Nike and Harpy. These two seemed to have stuck around after yesterdays adventures and were up to the same shenanigans. Nike was still teaching Harpy how to mug boats, hopefully she was taking notes and will make sure to keep herself safe in the future.

What exactly is mugging? Mugging is the term used by whale watchers to describe when a whale approaches a boat and hangs around. During a mugging, the whales often come to rest next to the boat, sometimes rolling over to show off their pec fins and bellies, and often diving under the boats. While this experience is incredibly cool and awe inspiring, it’s important to remember that these are wild animals, vastly larger than us, and they can do a lot of damage to themselves and the boats if everyone isn’t careful. Part of our job on the water is making sure everyone is safe, so when whales appear too close to us our first course of action is to shut the boat down. This prevents the whale from being injured by a moving boat, or startled by the sound of the engines. Humpbacks are smart animals, but I’m sure we can all think of a 100+ lb dog who likes to curl up in peoples laps. Animals are rarely aware of their size and power. By making sure the whales are safe and comfortable we minimize their stress and everyone has a good time.
We make sure not to encourage the whales to do this behavior either. This means no touching the whales! While it may sound fun to pet a whale, it can habituate them to come close to boats. Like feeding bears in parks. If they know they get a chin scratch every time they visit the loud creatures on the floating rocks, well they may approach the wrong boat and get injured, or even killed. It’s best to keep your hands in and let the whales inspect things and move on. Hopefully Harpy is learning how to mug boats safely and not picking up any bad habits from Nike.

After leaving this pair we continued on to the inner islands and found Strike, a confirmed female humpback, circling around near Yellowpoint. This isn’t the first time we’ve had Strike in this spot. She must have found a good food source in the islands and has been enjoying her solo all-you-can-eat buffet. Today her dives were shallow, suggesting that whatever she was foraging on was near the surface. She gave us one graceful pec slap before going back to her foraging.

Below are the photos of our whales today, taken by marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Janine Van Der Linden.

September 14th - Harpy & Nike by Thrasher Rock, & Strike by Yellowpoint

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