December 18, 2023 - Humpbacks and Orca and Sea Lions, Oh my!
It was a very special day on the 18th since we had a chartered whale-watching expedition right before the Holidays! This tour was on our cozy semi-covered vessel and was a total blast! Although a bit chilly out, we hardly noticed as we cruised through the Salish Sea in the warm, heated cabin in search of our whales. Our first stop wasn’t for the whales themselves, but rather for another Marine Mammal, the Sea Lion! We are lucky to have a haul-out site for them very close to home, on the log booms of the Harmac Pulp Mill! There was a bit of excitement amongst the animals as a few jockeyed for the best position on the logs. While some fought, others couldn’t be bothered and continued their naps as the drama played out.
After spending some time with these rambunctious Sea Lions, we continued our search south, heading through Dodd Narrows, and then through the Southern Gulf Islands. We ended up making it down to Porlier Pass, where we crossed between Valdes and Galiano Island and into the Strait of Georgia. From here it didn’t take long before our search proved fruitful, and we saw the distinct blows of humpback whales in the distance!
There seemed to be quite a few of them feeding in the area including Checkmate (BCY1104), Wolf Eel (BCY0940), Graphite (BCX2077), and Prowler (BCX1660). We saw two of these whales. Checkmate and Wolf Eel travelled very close together, as the others seemed to be solo feeding in the area.
Sometimes people seem surprised that we see humpback whales so late into the year, as humpbacks migrate down south for the winter months and are only found here in the summer months to feed. While the general idea of this is very true, there is some wiggle room to it. Yes, Humpbacks do migrate from their feeding grounds to their breeding grounds in either in Hawaii, Mexico, or South America, but the timing of this migration varies from animal to animal.
Some humpbacks are very early getting down south, and return sooner to the feeding grounds, while others take their time and will head down later in the year. There is some speculation about whether humpback whales will be spending their whole winter here, but unfortunately, this is very hard to prove. Humpbacks can make the migration down south in about a month, so you have to consecutively see the same whale without more than a month between sightings since this removes the possibility of them going south and returning between the sightings. Since there are fewer boats on the water and therefore fewer sightings during the winter there is yet to be proper evidence of any humpbacks overwintering in BC.
As we continue to run tours through the early months of the year maybe we will be able to provide more insight into this theory, but for now, we are just happy to be seeing the humpbacks before they head south.
After leaving these whales to their lunch we continued the search, continuing south along Galiano Island in the Strait of Georgia. Soon we spotted something else in the distance. This time it was large black dorsal fins in the water, along with a ton of splashing and excitement, it was orca! Oh wait, it is also more humpbacks…what was going on? It seemed like there was some interaction going on amongst all these animals, with the orca perhaps getting their meal interrupted by some angry humpbacks or the other way around. It can be hard to tell during these interactions since we don’t usually get the full picture. Not only are we limited by the amount of time we spend with the animals (usually around an hour per group), but a lot of the interactions happen primarily under the water’s surface. Today we did get to experience a lot of surface activity as well, with the humpbacks trumpeting and splashing around while the orca seemed to be hunting.
Although it was a little bit hectic, we were able to identify the following animals being present:
Humpbacks
Two Spot (BCZ0432), Viking (BCY1063), Lego (BCY1061), and Bullet (BCX1658)
Orca
T002C Tasu (1989)
T002C1 Rocky (2002)
T002C3 Lucy (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)
T034 Grace ♀ (≤ 1969)
T034A Pachamama ♀ (2007)
T034B Sonder (2017)
T037 Rocky III ♀ (1979)
T037B Harald ♀ (1998)
T037B1 Lance ♂ (2012)
T037B3 (2022)
It was fascinating to watch. While at some points the orca seemed to be chasing the humpbacks, other times it seemed like they were harassing the orca. As time went on we saw lots of interactions unfolding, but our time with the animals was up so we left them to it, and we don’t know how it ended up unfolding.
From the orca/humpback showdown, we started the journey back north towards Nanaimo. Along the way we made one last wildlife stop, going to Canoe Islets where a haul-out of Steller Sea Lions played around in the waves.
We returned to the dock with the sun just starting to dip behind the mountains, very pleased with all the amazing wildlife and unusual encounters we got to experience during this trip.
Our onboard naturalist Vanessa Vereschahen captured some great photos of the day which can all be viewed below!
A Black Turnstone sharing the logs near Harmac.
A very photogenic male California Sea Lion.
Prowler Diving.
The underside of Wolf Eels tail flukes.
The underside of Graphite’s tail flukes.
Upon looking at our photos, we noticed that Checkmate here has some recent entanglement scaring. Can you see the wound on the trailing edge of his left tail fluke?
These gulls are feasting on the same small critters that the humpbacks are!
The underside of Wolf Eels tail as they slip beneath the surface of the water.
Graphite creates a fluke waterfall as he prepares to dive.
Checkmate dives with Galiano’s shoreline in the background.
A close look at this humpbacks nostrils in the rain.
Another look at the entanglement scarring on Checkmates Peduncle (tail base).
Good thing humpbacks like Checkmate are very resilient!
One of our humpbacks on the left with T037 Pizza Fin on the right! It’s a showdown!
T002C1 Rocky has a huge dorsal fin!
Another angle on T002C1 Rocky’s dorsal fin and saddle patch.
T002C1 Rocky flicking his tail!
T002C Tasu surfaces in the calm water.
T034 Grace has this very distinct notch from her dorsal fin.
Close look at T002C1 Rocky, T037 Pizza fin, and another surfacing together.
T034 Grace beside T034B.
Viking aggressively surfacing near the orca.
Lego lifts part of his tail in the action!
Although slightly too zoomed in, you can see the orca chasing the humpback, whose tail is just leaving frame on the right.
Bullet lifting her tail preparing to dive.
Two Spot lifts his tail as he dives shortly after bullet.
Another orca (left) interacting with Lego the humpback (right).
T002C1 Rocky!
A big tail flick from one of our orca.
Humpback (likely Two Spot) giving a warning tail sweep to the orca.
Two Spot the humpback and one of the orca’s tail.
T002C1 Rocky feeding away from the group, with some gulls getting in on the action.
T002C Tasu with another surfacing just behind her.
A gull also bugs T002C Tasu for some scraps.
Just the edge of Two Spots tail.
A male Steller Sea Lion on Canoe Islets.
A Steller Sea Lion fighting the waves.
Curious Sea Lions watching us back!