July 19th was the day of the humpbacks! We ended up seeing a whole bunch of humpbacks across our two trips today, a total of 6 humpback whales.

The morning tour was lucky and saw a beautiful Z whale: Harpy (BCY0458 calf 2020)! Harpy is the 2020 calf of Raptor and has been returning to the waters near Nanaimo since she was born. Humpbacks have high site fidelity, meaning they typically return to the same general area year after year. Harpy was a bit excitable today doing a little bit of surface activity before she seemed to fall asleep. We saw a cartwheel, small tail slaps, and even a couple of pectoral fin slaps!

For a few minutes of our time spent here, there was also another humpback who passed close enough by to get an ID for Prowler (BCX1660)! Prowler is a special whale, they used to have a small hole in their tail fluke which has since opened up into a very distinct notch near the centre of their tail fluke. Although Prowler doesn’t like to lift their tail very high for their dive, usually this notch can be seen and we can therefore tell who it is we are looking at!

In the afternoon we headed into the same area where Harpy and Prowler were seen in the morning but ended up seeing a different set of humpback whales this time. The first whale we saw was travelling alone and also had a distinct tail fluke. It was Nuage/Beak (BCX1606)! They are an X type whale, meaning the majority of their tail flukes are black in colour, what makes Nuage/Beak unique is the white streak that is near the centre of his tail flukes. Although very close to another whale here in the Salish Sea, Seabird! You can see from their photos in HappyWhale that they have very similar white marks but the shape and positioning is slightly different to tell the difference between the two.

The last group of whales that we saw on the afternoon tour was three travelling together. It was a mom and calf pair: Strike (BCX1675) with her 2023 calf! These two were travelling with another adult whale: Bullet (BCX1658)! Bullet is another known female since in the past she has returned with calves of her own. These three were slowly travelling north together, likely doing feeding dives since they were zig-zagging around while they moved!

We always are excited to see our humpback whales since it wasn’t too long ago that there were extirpated, or locally extinct. This was largely due to whaling in the area. Since humpbacks are large whales and easy to spot, they were an easy target. There was actually a whaling station right here in Nanaimo, located near Pipers Lagoon Park. Lucky for us, whaling was banned in BC and we now focus on more sustainable ecotourism, where we get to go out and see these whales year after year and see them bring back calves, grow up, and change over time. This seems like a much better way to do it to me!

We not only got to see all these graceful humpback whales during our tours but also other wildlife, including Seals, Bald Eagles, Sea Lions, and more! All the photos from the day were taken by onboard Naturalists Cheyenne Brewster, Desarae Poier, and Vanessa Vereschahen and can be viewed below!

July 19, 2023 - Humpbacks all day!

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