We had two boats leaving the Harbour buzzing with excitement, given that we had a report of whales not too far from home! We headed out into the Strait of Georgia to see if we could find the pair of humpbacks that had been spotted from shore earlier.

Sure enough, after not too long, we saw the telltale signs of whales; Blows! The blows of the humpback whales are very powerful and noticeable, being released at speeds of nearly 300mph and reaching heights of 30 feet! These blows gave away the location of two humpback whales: Nike (BCX1377) and Europa (BCX0854). These two were travelling closely together, their surfaces and breaths nearly synchronized. Europa seemed to be leading this dance, coming up from the depths where they were likely feeding first, quickly followed by her companion, and also being the first to dive once again. We had to wonder to ourselves if this is because of he whales genders. Nike is thought to be male, and Europa is a known female. Do females take the lead during associations, or is this just a coincidence? I guess we will never know for sure. These whales continued surfacing peacefully, until suddenly Nike threw his tail clear out of the water, releasing a wave of feces along the way. We like to call these “poop cartwheels”, as this sideways movement of the tail is called a cartwheel from the whales.

Once the excitement from the pooping whale calmed, it was nearly at the end of the time we spend with the whales, so we started to leave these two behind and headed south. We aimed for the Southern Gulf Islands, and then Porlier Pass, only making a quick stop at the Harmac Pulp Mill to see the California Sea Lions lounging on the log booms.

Finally, we re-entered the Strait of Georgia and found ourselves in what we like to call “humpback soup” since everywhere we looked there seemed to be whales! At this point, our two boats found their own sets of whales. The open boat ended up with a group of four whales socializing! These whales were Valiant (BCX1773), Trooper (BCX1854), Snoopy (BCY0770), and Fader (BCY0195). These whales were also synced in their movements, disappearing and reappearing at the same time.

While one boat spent time with these four, the other boat found a single humpback whale Beak (BCX1606) who was slowly travelling through the calm water, until more whales appeared not too far away. Beak joined up with another group of three, Kraken (BCZ0180), Professor X (BCX1965) and Bond (BCX1640). These four whales seemed excited to be meeting up, with lots of trumpeting, tail swishing, and fast surfaces in very close proximity to each other. For once being thought of as solitary animals we sure see a lot of social interactions now! Lucky for us, it’s a great time to be whale watching since we keep seeing more and more humpbacks returning to our waters and get to see them being social like this. Our other boat eventually came over to watch these whales as well.

With so many whales around, we couldn’t help but get one last look at a different pair that was in the area, passing close to our group of four before continuing on their way, so the covered boat went over and spent some time with two whales, spending a lot of time at the surface. Lucky for us, just as we were about out of time, they lifted their tails and revealed their identities to us, it was two less common whales: Manta (BCZ0155) and Sherwina’s 2021 calf.

Eventually, it was time for us to make our way out of this bowl of humpback soup and start heading back to Nanaimo. We made a final stop at Stinky Rocks to see the Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals spending time there. It was an amazing day spent with so many interesting whales. Please enjoy all of the photos from the tour taken by the onboard Marine Naturalists Val Watson and Vanessa Vereschahen.

October 5, 2024 - A Hearty Bowl of Humpback Soup

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