It’s always a great day on the water, even when faced with some waves like today! We were fortunate to spot our Humpbacks fairly close to home, just on the Northern side of Gabriola Island. We saw the blows and that’s when the excitement set in! Not just 1 blow today, but 5! We had what we like to call Humpback soup.

How do we know which Humpbacks we saw on our tour today? We can identify them as individuals using the fluke or dorsal fin. We now have around 500 Humpbacks that visit the Salish Sea, so we use a catalogue with photos to reference. We are thrilled to see the Humpback come back and so happy when we can add another Unknown whale to our sightings like today. Although it can be frustrating for us Naturalists when we can not get an identification on the water, it is equally exciting when we spot someone we may have not seen before! It is not as hard as it seems when you know what to look for, we promise! The fluke or tail is like a fingerprint, unique to each whale, as well as the dorsal fin. We have also tried to make identifying our whales easier by putting them into 3 different categories. We have our X-whales who have 80% or more black on the underside of their fluke. Twinning (BCX1207) is a great example of this. Next, we have our Y-whales, these flukes have a blend of both black and white. Finally, we have the Z-whales they have 80% or more white on their flukes. Both Kraken (BCZ0180) and Stripe (BCZ0004) are Z-whales. In fact, to the untrained eye, you may think these 2 whales are the same one. When we look closer at the markings, we can clearly see these are two individuals! For the Humpbacks who do not like to fluke often, we can use the dorsal fins this is just more of a challenge for us than a big beautiful fluke. A whale like Dandelion (BCY1107) who chose not to fluke, would have been a great example of a Y-whale as well, but you will have to believe us as they did not show it off! We got lucky it was Dandelion who chose not to fluke today as their dorsal is very distinct. Can you spot the unique tip in the photos below?

We also got a peek at a majestic Bald Eagle, watching us back! Our adorable Harbour Seals were lounging on the rocks with some Black Turnstones searching for snacks. We also got to meet both species of Sea Lion today, our giant Stellers at the stinky rocks and their noisy cousins the Californians at the Harmac log booms.

Photos can be enjoyed below, taken by Marine Naturalist Des Poier.