The sun was shining overhead as we had two of our boats leaving Nanaimo to start their search for whales. Heading out of the Harbour, their paths diverged so they would be able to cover more ground. One headed over the top of Gabriola Island, and the other went south to search inside of the Southern Gulf Islands before heading into the Strait themselves.

Both boats searched through their respective paths, with a quick stop for one boat at Stinky Rocks where the massive Steller Sea Lions - The largest species of sea lion in the world - were spending time on the rocks. They can be aggressive towards each other while they spend time here, roaring at each other and grunting and growling, fighting to be at the top of the pile. Yet, in other areas of the rocks, there is no issue with these giant animals piling on top of each other to get a nap. Just goes to show you that these animals have moods and personalities that will affect their behaviour! In addition to the sea lions, a River Otter also made an appearance at Stinky during this visit. It was relaxing on the rocks, taking a short break from fishing in these shallow waters. Although found on this rocky outcrop in the ocean, we know this is a river otter thanks to it smaller size, brown fur all over its body, and how graceful it was as it ran across the rocks. A Sea Otter will be much larger with a white face and is nearly entirely aquatic, leading to very awkward movements if you ever see them on land.

Carrying on from Stinky, this boat came across a pair of humpback whales travelling together at the surface. One of the pair, Bump (BCY0771), was doing much higher flukes than the other while preparing to dive, but we did eventually get a shot of the tail of Bump’s friend, it was Beak (BCX1606)! It seemed like these two were happy spending time in close quarters at first, something we call association, but partway through our time watching them these two drifted apart. This is quite common to see with the humpback whales. Although we commonly see them paired up like Bump and Beak, they are short-term associations not usually lasting longer than a few hours to a few days, although there are exceptions to this. As an apparent goodbye, one of these two did a single cartwheel before they continued on their travels.

As they left, so did our boats to see if they would be able to find any other wildlife today. It wasn’t long before more blows appeared at the surface, another pair of humpbacks! These two were Sherwina (BCY0961) and Arial (BCY0767) travelling together. These two appeared to be feeding in the area, surfacing for a few breaths before lifting their tails and disappearing below the surface in search of prey. Humpback whales are filter feeders, taking in huge mouthfuls of water and straining them through the 400 baleen plates that hang from the roof of their mouths. The small animals that they feed on, like Krill and small schooling fish, get caught on these plates and then swallowed by the whale. They need to eat a lot of these little critters to build up their fat reserves while they spend time in our waters, consuming about 1 - 1.5 tonnes of food every day. This fat will be their main energy source as they travel to their breeding grounds - either Hawaii or Mexico - where food is much more scarce. Interestingly, three of the four whales we saw today go to Hawaii to breed and have their calves (Beak, Sherwina, and Arial) while only one goes to Mexico instead (Bump). Since the majority of humpbacks in our region head to Hawaii instead of Mexico, this isn’t really all that surprising!

After our time with the whales, we started the journey back north, towards Nanaimo. We took the inside of the Southern Gulf Islands, searching for wildlife along the way. Dodd Narrows was teeming with excitement, as per usual. Dodd has high currents that are produced with the tide change moving huge volumes of water through a tight space, with only about 200 feet separating Joan Point on Vancouver Island from Mudge Island. We often find Sea Lions hunting in these currents this time of year as the salmon try and run through this narrow area, also fighting the currents. We saw a few successful sea lions at the surface with their catch, and the gulls taking advantage of the free pieces being thrown around as the sea lions tried to break the fish into bite-sized chunks.

After passing through Dodd, we had one last stop at the Harmac Pulp Mill where the sea lions were resting on the log booms. We saw both species of sea lion here today, the larger, lighter-coloured Steller Sea Lions mixed in with the smaller, darker California Sea Lions. After watching the antics of the sea lions, we continued home to Nanaimo, pleased with all the wildlife we were lucky enough to see today! Please enjoy the photos taken throughout the tour by our onboard Marine Naturalists Vanessa Vereschaehn and Aly Kohlman.

Steller Sea Lions at Stinky Rocks. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A fuzzy River Otter at Stinky Rocks. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Black Oyster catchers picking through the mussel beds. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Beak and Bump

The underside of bump’s tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

The underside of Beak’s tail as he dives. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bump flicking his tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Bump lifting his tail. Photo by Vanessa Vereschahen.

Beak’s dorsal fin. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

The top of Beak’s tail as he dives. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Bump going for a dive. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

A fluke waterfall from Beak. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Bump arching his back for a dive. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Whale watchers on Cascadia. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Bump doing a little tail flick. Photo by Aly Kohlman.

Sherwina and Arial

October 17, 2024 - Humpback Pairs Times Two

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