It was a breezy day as we left the harbour. We had our semi-covered boat Kula and our open boat Cascadia head into the Strait of Georgia to look for humpback whales. None of the whales here in British Columbia are tagged or tracked, so we go out every day and look for them with our own two eyes.

Researchers have tried tagging whales before. Some of our humpback whales have scars from where they had trackers on them, but they are no longer there. Researchers also tried to tag killer whales, but these either left huge scars on them or in a Southern Residents’ case, is believed to have led to their death. When someone puts a tracker on a whale, it can get infected very easily, especially since they usually have to go somewhat into the skin. In British Columbia, scientists have since stopped using this method. Instead of under-the-skin trackers, researchers can use suction-cup ones. These aren’t so much trackers, but more like monitors. They can have little microphones attached to them and even cameras! These typically fall off after a few hours. As well, whales are always shedding their skin, so they can sometimes be hard to put on the whales. It’s always super cool when the researchers release the footage and we get to see it!

More and more humpbacks are arriving from their breeding grounds in Mexico and Hawaii to feed on their favourite food: krill! Krill are small, red, shrimp-looking creatures that hang out in the Strait. Today we found two humpbacks, Fader (BCY0195) and Seabird (BCX1774) enjoying their snacks.

Our waters are quite murky. The good news is, this is not due to pollution, but rather due to the productivity here. Small creatures are floating around known as plankton - small plants and animals that are at the bottom of the food chain. They can be too small to see with the naked eye, but some of them can be a little bit over half a centimetre (about 1/6 of an inch). These feed the krill. Plankton usually retreats to depth during the day to avoid predators, but our humpbacks can dive right down to where the krill are hiding. The Strait of Georgia can be about 400 meters deep, but humpbacks will typically dive to around 200 meters to feed. They have been recorded going deeper - the deepest dive that has been recorded was about 400 meters down.

When feeding, a humpback will open its mouth and take in a mouthful of water. Humpbacks have pleats running from their chin to just behind their pectoral fins that can expand while they are feeding. This may give their heads the appearance of a balloon, but it can help them take in more water, and therefore, more food. They close their mouth and strain out everything that is not food through their baleen. Baleen is made of a protein called keratin, which your hair and fingernails are also made out of! The baleen acts as a huge filter, and when the whale is left with just krill and whatever else was in that mouthful (plankton, small fish, etc), it swallows it all down. Humpbacks need to eat about 1.5 tonnes of food per day! For context, they can weigh between 25 and 40 tonnes.

After watching the humpbacks, we watched them go on one last dive and headed out to find some other wildlife. We made our way over to one of our favourite wildlife spots - Stinky Rocks! There are still a lot of Steller Sea Lions hanging around, snoozing and roaring away. On the rocks a little ways away from the sea lions are some cute little harbour seals! It’s pupping season for them, and there appeared to be a young one there today! Seal pups are extra cute and we always love seeing them!

We left Stinky Rocks and took the inside passage north back towards home port. We finally arrived at the Bluffs to quickly see some bald eagles and cormorants, then we headed home after another very successful day out on the water!

Photos taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson and Lucy Willis.

June 14, 2024, 10:30am - A duo of Humpbacks by Entrance Island

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