We decided to travel north today to see if we could find any new faces as there was a report of humpbacks near Nanoose Bay.
We arrived to find 3 whales sleeping near the surface. They woke briefly from their nap long enough for one of them to give us a tail lob and allow us to get some ID-worthy photos. Nova BCY1178 was born in 2018 to Apollo and has a beautiful white tail. Today Nova was travelling with a very familiar whale, Honu KEY0030! We travelled north to try to find new whales, seems Honu had the same idea. Travelling with Nova and Honu was a third whale. This isn’t the first time we have seen this little whale, but we’ve yet to be able to ID them. This little whale has many spots and splotches on its back and dorsal, which should make it easy to ID them, however, they refuse to lift their tail for us! Without that fluke, it can be very difficult to confirm an ID.

After getting back to the office and scrolling through posts, we came across a post from the Marine Educational and Research Society talking about Jackson, a well-known humpback to us, and their calf of this year. The spots on our mystery whale lined up perfectly with Jackson’s calf’s markings. We checked in with MERS to further confirm, and they agreed, this is Jackson’s calf from this year. In most cases calves remain with their mom for an entire year, migrating to the feeding grounds and back to the breeding grounds. Calves typically ween off their mom’s milk at about 6 to 10 months old, and in September this little calf would be 8-9 months old. Knowing this little whale is no longer with their mom may not be a big deal, but it’s good information to have as we can now pay extra attention to them when we do see them next. One of the biggest things we will be watching for is whether or not it looks like the little one is feeding. As long as this calf is foraging on its own, and sticks close to other adults like Honu, they shouldn’t have a problem making it back to the breeding grounds.

Today this trio seemed very tired. After Nova’s tail lob Jackson’s calf drifted off towards the islands while Nova and Honu began to sleep travelling south. Honu seems to be escorting all the whales right to Nanaimo!

We left our sleepy friends to check on more reports of whales on the ferry lines out of Nanaimo near Snake Island. Sure enough, we came across another pair of humpbacks, with reports of a third nearby. We never saw our third whale, but we were able to get an ID on our 2 new whales. Quadrata BCZuk2021#1 and Omega BCX1416 calf 2020 were taking a nap! Very shortly after we arrived Quadrata woke from their slumber and began doing some feeding dives. Omega decided their nap wasn’t over and continued floating near the surface. At first, Quadrata would dive and resurface right by their friend, check on them and dive again. Soon Quadrata decided food was more important and began diving and making their way towards Snake island while Omega continued their snooze. Omega was a bit tricky to ID as they were very shy with their tail. As they slept, occasionally they would roll on their side and lift just one corner of their fluke from the water. Thankfully this corner was all we needed. Their fluke has changed quite a bit since their baby photo was taken, but there were still enough similarities that we could match it!

We stopped in with one more group of whales before we made our way to the port. This third group was a bit further out but still close to Entrance Island. It was Mammoth KEX0023 and her calf. Mammoth also goes by the name Ocean, and just like the other groups of whales, these 2 were fast asleep! What were all our whales up to last night that they were all so sleepy??
Thankfully the winds were very light, so the waters were flat and calm today and the sun was up, so watching sleeping humpbacks was still a great way to spend the day. Being able to shut off the boats and listen to 40-foot-long animals relax and breathe is quite magical.

After we left Mammoth and her calf we stopped to see some seals and sea lions before we headed home for the day.
Enjoy the photos of our whales and wildlife taken by marine naturalists Janine Van Der Linden, Rebeka Pirker, and Vanessa Vereschahen.

September 26th - Humpbacks as far as the eye can see!

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