The weather this afternoon had turned to more of what we expect on the west coast of Canada, a little bit of cloud cover and a sprinkle of rain throughout the tour. We enjoyed these West Coast Vibes as we headed out from the Nanaimo Harbour with two of our vessels on the water. They decided to start the search south, heading through Dodd Narrows, and into the Southern Gulf Islands. Lately, there has been a bit of a whale hot spot just outside of Porlier Pass, so we decided to try our luck there again.

Both boats excited the protected waters of the islands and headed out into the Strait. Although there were still some waves out there, we were able to find some whales nearly immediately. It was a pair of humpback whales! These whales were travelling very close together, looking to be feeding in the area. From the photos taken, we were able to ID these whales as Hendrix (BCY1278) and Split Fin (BCZ0298). Part of the reason that humpback whales are a bit easier to find than the other types of whales that we see is that they tend to spend more time in areas of high productivity. The area outside of Porler Pass where Hendrix and Split Fin were spending their time today has a lot going on that makes it have higher productivity than the other areas nearby. The first thing is Porlier Pass itself. This pass creates currents when the tide changes and flows through. These currents help to mix the water column, since the water gets moving very fast the surface gets agitated and wavy. This mixes more oxygen into the water at the surface. The surface water then gets drawn further down when things like whirlpools form. Bringing the surface water down displaces the cooler, deeper, water and pushes it up to the surface, called upwelling. This water now at the surface is very cool and can dissolve more oxygen in it. More oxygen means that more organisms can live here, building a very strong base at the lower trophic levels of the ecosystem.

Not only is Porlier Pass mixing up the water column but this area is also right across from the mouth of the Frasier River. This river has a huge volume of water that runs through it daily, and it brings with it more sediment and nutrients that are typically rare in the marine ecosystem. This river runoff is also lower-density brackish water (meaning it’s a mix of fresh and saltwater). This wedge of lower-density water also helps to mix up the water column more than you would find in areas without river outflow. So we have increased nutrients and doubled the water mixing. It’s a recipe for even more wildlife! The humpbacks that we saw today are feeding very low in the trophic levels on plankton and schooling fish, but other animals are often seen here taking advantage of the higher productivity such as seals, sea lions, and sometimes their predators, the Biggs Orca.

Today it was just humpback though, and we enjoyed spending our time with Hendrix and Split Fin as they fed in the area. While watching these two, we saw some bigger splashing in the distance, usually a good indicator of some surface activity happening in the distance. We decided to switch whales at this point and see who was causing the commotion in the distance. Upon approach, we saw lots more splashing, as the whales did cartwheels and tail slapping at each other. Lucky for us, those tails are what we need to figure out who we are looking at so it made it easy to identify Olympus (BCX2075) and Valiant (BCX1773) still spending time together. It seemed that these two were still riled up, or maybe riled up again since we saw similar activity from them during our morning tour. These two girls were not only splashing about at the surface but also trumpeting when they surfaced! Trumpeting is what it’s called when the humpbacks make noise when they exhale. It almost sounds like an elephant, or someone playing the trumpet terribly. We typically hear this from the whales during socializing or if they are disturbed. In this case, it was most likely the first option. Humpback whales are known for their ability to make noise, with their songs capturing the hearts of many in the past and present. Males can sing for up to 24 hours at a time when they are down in their southern breeding grounds, thought to be a way to impress the ladies. Up here where they are feeding, we don’t typically hear them sing, but trumpeting does happen from time to time. We watched in awe at the show of power that Olympus and Valiant displayed here, obviously with lots of energy from the food in the area.

Eventually, all good things must come to an end, so we started leaving these whales to their socializing, and we continued on to Stinky Rock where we found some Pinnipeds spending time there. Both the Harbour Seals and Steller Sea Lions eat fish, similar to our humpback whales, so it’s probably not a coincidence that this large haul-out is so close to the highly productive area we mentioned earlier. We got some great looks at both species before heading back to Nanaimo. Lucky for us we had time to make one final stop at the Gabriola Bluff for a look at the Cormorants before officially ending the tour.

It was a great time spent with our humpback whales and other wildlife. The onboard naturalists Aly Kohlman and Vanessa Vereschahen captured some great photos from the tour which can be viewed below!

July 28, 2023, 3:30 pm - Two pairs of Humpbacks hanging out in the Strait of Georgia

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