Fall was in the area today when we pushed off from the dock. Our summer season has been going on longer than usual, so it was nice to have a bit of a cooler day today. Once we headed out we began our trip across the Strait of Georgia. Along the way, we found a little lone humpback snoozing. This humpback was ID’d as Neowise (BCY0160 calf 2020). After a few minutes, it appeared that Neowise woke up from his nap. He gave us one big flick of his tail and then he began just travelling along.

Neowise (paired with a bit of camera troubles) was not cooperating for fluke shots today. However, with these two perfectly imperfect shots below, we were able to confirm that it was indeed him present.

We are not always able to get a catalog-worthy ID shot of our whales while we are on scene. While we always hope for one, the reality is that these are wild whales just living their lives, and they don’t always do what we hope that they will do. This is why it is so important to work on your ID skills as a Naturalist, especially with less-than-perfect photos like the two above!

Neowise (BCY0160 calf 2020)’s ID photo in the **KETA Coastal Conservation catalog**.

After departing Neowise we continued to our original destination - 2 humpbacks near Sechelt. These two were identified as Sherwina (BCY0961) and Portrait (BCY1223). Portrait is a relatively new-to-us whale. We have only had one other sighting of them previously which was on August 20th. We did see Portrait travelling with their mother Fallen Knight back in 2019 - however, humpback calves only stay with their mother for around a year before they begin travelling solo. While we are unsure of where Portrait has been travelling in the last few years, we are very glad to see them back in our area looking healthy!

Sherwina is a regular in our area, and she can often be spotted travelling with yearlings/younger whales. While we are unsure why this is, there is a possibility that her motherly instincts simply kick in and she likes to help raise the little ones who are still ‘learning the ropes’ of being a humpback whale.

These two travelled closely side-by-side, diving and feeding along Sechelt’s coastline and over alongside the Trail Islands.

Once our time with Sherwina and Portrait was up we turned south and headed to one of our favourite wildlife stops - the White Islets. These gorgeous tiny islands typically have many different species nestled up on them, including seals, sea lions, and various bird species. It is common to see our sea lions neck jousting and yelling at each other as they battle for the best place to snooze and sunbathe. Usually, they fight for the highest point on whichever rocky island they are perched on, but some of the smaller sea lions tend to hang out further down the rocks. Our Cormorants and Gulls could also be seen wandering around the rocks, likely pecking away at any scraps of food that may have gotten lodged in the crevices or left behind by the sea lions.

After the White Islets, we started to make our way back toward our home port. We finished our trip with a quick stop to see our other species of sea lions over by Harmac - the California sea lions. Our Californians are just starting to return to our area so they were pretty tired out. Being tired didn’t stop a couple of the larger males from grumbling to each other while we were there though!

Photos from this tour were taken by Marine Naturalist Cheyenne Brewster.

September 12, 2023 - Humpbacks in the Strait

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