November 11, 2024 - Humpback Soup east of Galiano Island and a tour through the SGIs

It was a beautiful day as we had our boat leaving the Nanaimo Harbour. Although the forecast had called for rain, we seemed to have lucked out as we started to have some sunshine poking its way through the clouds. We headed south from Nanaimo, searching our way through Dodd Narrows, Stuart and Trincomali Channels, until we left the protected waters of the Southern Gulf Islands behind to try our luck in the Strait of Georgia. Here we searched down Galiano Island until we spotted the first blows! We had found ourselves some whales!

As we got closer, it became clear that these were humpbacks, since they had smaller dorsal fins and much bushier blows than you would see on an orca. When we are trying to ID the humpback whales, what we typically look for is the underside of the tail. This tail is massive, nearly 20 feet across when fully grown which provides a lot of surface area to pick out the details that we match against the photos in the identification catalogues. Small things like scars, notches, and pigmentation can help us tell the whales apart. In this case, the catalogue didn’t even need to be pulled out since the naturalist recognized both whales right away: it was Kraken (BCZ0180) and Olympus (BCX2075) travelling together! These two seemed like they were shallow feeding since they would lift their tails high out of the water, propelling a deeper dive before resurfacing a few minutes later where we saw them again. The humpbacks in the area are here for our nutrient-rich waters which have high concentrations of both Krill and the small schooling fish that these gentle giants are searching for. They need to consume about a tonne of food on average during their time here to build up the fat reserves that they need for their migration down south.

While spending time with Kraken and Olympus, we also saw another whale travelling by himself nearby. He came close enough for us to recognize him before continuing on his travels father away, this was Beak (BCX1606)! He also seemed to be feeding, doing deeper dives as we saw him disappear into the distance. In addition to Beak in the distance, we spotted another set of blows and decided after some time with Olympus and Kraken that we would switch and see who these others were. It turned out to be Graphite (BCX2077) travelling with an unknown friend who didn’t cooperate in showing off their tail for us. Sometimes humpback’s dorsal fins can be used to ID the individuals, but usually only if there is some sort of distinct shape or scarring present. This dorsal fin was pretty non-descript so we haven’t matched it to anything yet! If we ever do, we will be sure to update it here!

Watching these two was very different than our first set of humpbacks, as it appeared that these two were likely resting instead of feeding. While it didn’t seem like they were truly asleep, their movements were much slower and they didn’t seem to be gearing up for as deep as dives compared to the others. We did get to see an interesting behaviour from these whales though, when the unknown animal lifted their rostrum up out of the water! This could indicate that they were feeding, and in the process of filtering through their catch, but it can be hard to tell when we only get a small look at everything that these whales are really up to!

When we were finally preparing to leave this little patch of humpback whales and continue the search, we got word of a report of orca that was inside the Southern Gulf Islands again. Although this report was old, and without much detail, it was better than nothing, so we decided to head inside to try our luck at finding them! We searched throughout the islands, being treated to some interesting sights along the way. We saw fishing bald eagles, rafts of sea lions, and some smaller Harbour Seals floating through the water as we travelled. We even got a close look at a rare ecosystem here in Canada, the Gary Oak Ecosystem along the shore of Saltspring Island as we searched. Unfortunately today we didn’t have luck in finding these whales, but it was still beautiful as we looked!

We ended the trip with a stop at the Harmac Pulp Mill, were we got to see the California and Steller Sea Lions lounging on the logs, and even a River otter scampering around on the booms as well! It was a great end to a fantastic day. Please enjoy all the photos from the day below taken by the onboard Marine Naturalist Val Watson.

Planes flying overhead for Remembrance Day.

Another look at the planes.

Steller Sea Lions fishing in Dodd Narrows.

The underside of Olympus’s tail.

The underside of Kraken’s tail.

Kraken lifting their tail for a dive.

Olympus letting a blow out as she surfaces.

A fluke waterfall from Olympus.

Kraken’s dorsal fin.

A fluke waterfall from Kraken.

There were lots of rainbows during the tour.

Olympus’s dorsal fin.

Olympus going for a dive.

The bottom side of Olympus’s tail.

Kraken diving with Valdes Island in the background.

A look up Graphite’s nostrils.

Graphite lifting his fluke for a dive.

You can see the little bit of white near the trailing edge of Graphite’s tail.

The unknown lifting their rostrum out of the water.

The unknown surfacing in the waves.

Graphite going for a dive.

The dorsal fin of the unknown was very scarred up.

Graphite’s dorsal.

A lovely fluke waterfall from Graphite.

The top side of Graphite’s tail has some new scratches on it.

The River Otter at the Harmac Pulp Mill.

A sea lion looking for it’s fighting partner under the water.

Not to pleased their partner made it back on the log.

And with so little regard for persona space!

So the fight continues.