During our tour on the 11th of October, we headed out into the Strait of Georgia, since we had some earlier reports of humpbacks not too far from home, in an area known as Halibut Bank. This area is a usual hotpot for humpback whales since banks provide higher productivity than the surrounding waters. This is due to upwelling, a force caused by the tide changing and the water hits this underground hill and is forced closer to the surface. This water is colder and has different nutrients than the surface water, so in areas of upwelling when this water mixes with the surface water, it can provide nutrients that might otherwise be lacking and helps the plankton grow. This plankton forms the base of a very complicated food chain in the Salish Sea, but most notably, the larger of the Plankton, Krill, draws in the humpback whales to feed. They are also known to feed on small schooling fish in the area, which would be drawn in by this abundance of Plankton.

Today the whales that were taking advantage of this higher concentration of food were Phi/Corona (BCX1416), Kraken/Pyramid/Monarch (BCZ0180), Sherwina (BCY0961), and an Unknown. They likely weren’t in feeding mode while we watched them, since they weren’t diving very deep or showing off their tails as they went under as much. If they were diving deeper to where their food usually is in the daytime, we would be seeing more flukes and less time spent at the surface. They might have just been needing a rest, or traveling slowly to another micro-habitat with more food for them.

In addition to seeing these giant creatures today, we ended up spotting a couple of smaller ones as well.

The other critters spotting happened first at Stinky Rocks. This is a haul out area for a couple of our pinniped species. Today we saw both Harbour Seals and larger Steller Sea Lions. These two don’t usually spend time in close proximity, but there is plenty of room to spread out and have separate rocks for both right now. The Steller Sea Lions were causing a ruckus, with lots of vocalizing, fighting, and trampling going on. The seals are usually much more calm, with not much noise other than the occasional sneeze or squeak as they sit and enjoy the sun.

Before returning to the harbour there was one final stop, near Dodd Narrows. There we saw a few bird species including a majestic Bald Eagle, a Great Blue Heron, and Cormorants a bit further north.

It was an amazing day spent on the water, and our onboard marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Vanessa Vereschahen got some great photos of all the wildlife, which you can view below.

October 11, 2023 - Spending time with 3 humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia

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