During the afternoon tour, we tried to find the humpbacks that were seen on the morning trip once more, and we got close! One of the whales who was seen in the morning, Zephyr’s 2021 calf (BCZ0414 calf 2021), was spotted again, but this afternoon he was travelling with a couple of friends! One we identified as Yakima (KEX0062) and the other remains unknown.

These three were closely associated, travelling very close together and surfacing in sync with each other. It seemed that they were feeding in the area since they didn’t travel very far from the same position while watching them.

Typically this means that there is lots of food in the area, and they are diving under the surface to feed. They need a lot of food in a single day, especially this time of year. They have just returned from their migration which they don’t feed. Instead, they feed off of their fat reserves. These reserves are built over the summer months in whichever feeding ground they go to. There is a certain level of site fidelity with our humpback whales, meaning that the whales will return to the same areas to feed almost every single year. The whales that we see here in the Salish Sea will be spending their whole summer in our waters feeding and building their reserves. They will be feeding on tiny critters, things like krill, schooling fish, and other plankton.

They take in big mouthfuls of water which contains all these small animals and then they filter out all the water with their baleen plates and eat all the food which is leftover. They will eat about a ton of food every day using this method. This does leave them susceptible to ingesting plastic since they don’t selectively pick out their prey. If a school of fish is near the surface along with a bunch of garbage, they might end up ingesting all that plastic along with their targeted food source. This is obviously bad for the whale since the plastic won’t usually be directed properly, or if it does, the plastic will release toxins into the whale’s body and can cause harm in that way. That’s why the use of plastic alternatives is becoming so important as the human population increases. It’s not only for the whales but also for the rest of the natural world that is affected by this waste.

After spending time with the humpbacks we headed off to see some other wildlife, with Seals being spotted near Entrance Island, and of course, we stopped at the Gabriola Bluffs to check in on the Eagle nest and the status of Pinecone and Freddy who are still looking nice and healthy!

All the photos for the afternoon were taken by Aly Kohlman, Cheyenne Brewster, and Vanessa Vereschahen.