What a day! We saw a ton of different humpbacks. We ID’d a total of 9 different individuals, including:

Arial (BCY0767), Dandelion (BCY1107), Geometry (BCX0338), Neowise (BCY0160 calf 2020), Niagara (BCY0057), Sherwina (BCY0961), Split Fluke (BCX1068), Stripe (BCZ0004), and Valiant (BCX1773).

In the morning we set out with the full fleet, heading to an area we unofficially call “Humpback Land”. This is an area in the Strait of Georgia near Halibut Bank that is very rich in prey for our Humpbacks. Humpbacks are baleen whales, so this means that instead of teeth, they have plates of keratin in their mouth that they use to filter out the smaller prey, such as plankton and krill. It’s super important for the humpbacks to feed a lot during the summer and fatten themselves up for their long trip back to the breeding grounds.

The first whale we came across was Stripe, with Neowise and Arial hanging out together nearby. We even got a pec slap from one of the whales! Pec slapping is a great form of communication between humpbacks. In the breeding grounds, females use pec slapping to flirt with the males and initiate healthy competition between them. Pec slapping can also be a form of play, and a basic communication to alert other whales they are nearby.

While Kula and Keta hung out with these three, Cascadia found Niagara. Niagara has an interesting fluke and is a good example of an animal that has changed pretty significantly over the years. Niagara is a “Y” animal, which means that at the time of his classification, they possess 20-80% white on the underside of their fluke. While this used to be the case for Niagara, his fluke has darkened up significantly over the years. Check out these photos below, courtesy of the MERS catalogue.

By the look of his current fluke, he should fall into the “X” classification, meaning they have a primarily black coloration. However, because it can create difficulties in identification, Niagara will keep his current ID number.

In the afternoon, we saw several different Humpbacks, with a couple more pairs travelling together! Sherwina and Arial spent some time swimming together, while Neowise met up with Split Fluke to mill around. Soon, more whales came along and we had a real humpback party! Geometry came over to join up with Arial and Sherwina, while Valiant came to check out Neowise and Split Fluke. We’ve seen a lot of close association between the Humpbacks this year, and we’re eager to see how this changes over the years as more and more Humpbacks return to the Salish Sea.

On the way home, we came across Dandelion, just off of Entrance Island. This humpback must have been feeding pretty extensively because they spent a good amount of time on longer dives. Even so, it was nice to see them for a quick visit before we finished up for the day.

Besides whales, we saw a ton of other species! Harbour seals, River Otters, Harbour Porpoise, and Steller Sea Lions all made an appearance. We also saw a good amount of bird species on the tour! We got some great photos of the Bald Eagles, Pigeon Guillemots, Red Necked Phalaropes, Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron.

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson, Carmen Murphy, and Aly Kohlman.

August 7, 2023 - Humpback soup!

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