This morning’s tour was another trip to humpback land! Our humpback whales can be a little bit more predictable than the orca in the area since they like to spend time in areas of high productivity. They like these spots since it allowed them to feed successfully without the need to keep travelling as much. Humpback whales are known for their unique feeding behaviour. These gentle giants are filter feeders, meaning they consume small prey in large quantities by filtering them through their baleen plates. Humpbacks typically feed on krill, small fish, and plankton. They can consume up to 3,000 pounds of food in a single day. To feed, humpbacks will lunge towards a school of prey with their mouths open, engulfing large amounts of water. The water is then pushed out through the baleen plates, trapping the prey inside, and allowing the humpback whale to swallow their food whole. Despite their massive size, humpbacks have a diet that primarily consists of microorganisms and small prey, making them an important link in the ocean's food chain.

That explains why these whales seem to be staying in the same area since they would just be eating the whole time. They just returned from their huge migration down south to their breeding grounds, and when they are there they only feed very opportunistically. This means that they survive off their fat reserves that they build over the summer. When they first return to our waters that’s when we see the most feeding behaviour, and it can take up to 22 hours of their day!

Today it was another large group of whales spread out over a couple of miles. Although these whales may not be right next to each other they would still be likely aware of each other’s presence, and could even be talking to each other!

The whales that we saw today were: KEZ0009 Kelpie, BCX1705 Ocular, KEX0059 Graphite, and BCX1333 Ghost's 2021 calf! There were more in the distance as well, but none that we could get close enough for good photos of.

Most of these whales are young, Kelpie is estimated to be about 4 years old, based on her size when we first saw her in 2021, Ocular is 7 years old (2016 calf of Slash/Humpless), Graphite is 4 years old (2019 calf of Slate), and Ghost’s 2021 calf is two years old! We have a theory that the young whales are spending more time together, as we’ve seen pairings of young-looking whales or known “yearlings” travelling together the past couple of years. As the year goes on we will be interested to see if this pattern continues!

The morning tour also got to see some harbour seals, cormorants at the bluffs, and sea lions before returning to Nanaimo. It was a fantastic day and naturalists Des Poier and Vanessa Vereschahen got some amazing photos which you can view below.

June 1, 2023 10:30 - So many humpback whales!

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