Off again! We’re on a humpback streak and had a sneaking suspicion today would be no different. Our intuition was spot on, and we spent time with 8 different whales this morning! We split up as usual, to increase our chances of finding whales. As is the trend lately, our open boats and Kula found two different whales.

Just east of Valdez, our semi-covered boat Kula ran into a well-known whale in our waters - Scuba (BCY1225)! Five-year-old Scuba was hanging out, but giving us nice flukes so we were able to ID them with little problem. While we were looking at the fluke to get an ID, we were treated to a shower of red in the water. No need to be alarmed though, there were no injuries here! This shower of red was actually whale poop!
Whale poop is a surprisingly important part of the local ecosystem. These “ecosystem engineers” play an important role in recycling various nutrients through the water column, including nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. As whales poop at the surface, high concentrations of nitrogen and iron are dumped as well, creating a great food source for small fish and phytoplankton. Nitrogen naturally falls towards the bottom of the ocean in various forms including schooling fish, it is then recycled upwards as the whales come up to breathe! These “whale pumps” create a positive feedback loop, and more whale poop = healthier ecological systems! Furthermore, whale poop acts as a natural fertilizer for phytoplankton blooms, which also sequester large amounts of carbon. In fact, after the loss of whales due to the extensive effects of the whaling industry, residual effects on a multitude of species were felt, including a huge loss of biodiversity and ecosystem health. Who knew poop could be so important!

Nearby, the open boats were spending time with another humpback. This guy is a newbie to the Salish Sea, so currently doesn’t have a name or Canadian ID number. In American waters, this whale is known as CRC-21176. Another reason this mystery whale isn’t named is because they are a first-time visitor! Our new friend is quite young, first spotted in 2022, and migrates to Hawaii during the winter. What’s especially interesting is that this youngster usually spends its summers feeding in Monterey Bay, California! We occasionally see animals that will switch between breeding grounds, but checking out new feeding grounds is a little bit more unique. Humpbacks exhibit site fidelity, meaning they will (usually) return to the same area that their mother brought them to feed as a young calf. We suspect this youngster followed some other whales from Hawaii to our waters this year to check out some Canadian eats. Welcome to the Salish Sea little one! We hope we get to see you next year!

We continued on our way and found another pair travelling together that were identified as Holey Moley (BCY1198) and BCY1157. BCY1157 is another unnamed youngster in our waters, but they are currently in the process of receiving a nickname! This guy has three distinct scars on the left side of their fluke, so one of our naturalists proposed “Turkey”. In bowling, three strikes is a Turkey! Although silly, little associations of markings on the fluke make the name easy to remember.

The day wasn’t done there though! We continued and had a lot of fun with three more whales! All three boats spent time with Incognito (BCX2058), Kelpie (BCY1276) and Hendrix (BCY1278). While these there were a bit sleepy with Kula, the open boats arrived a bit later and were saw some exciting activity from these guys, including breaching, pec sleeping, and of course, some great flukes.

After we watched the three for a while, we started making the journey home. Our semi-covered boat came across Wisp (2021 Calf of BCX1333). Wisp became interested in our boat and gave us some close passes. We do not encourage whales to come close to the boat, but it’s an incredible experience when it does happen. We shut down our engines so our propeller blades are not spinning and cannot injure the whale. Eventually, Wisp went off to do their whale things and we left them to it!

We stopped for some other wildlife on the way home. There’s a good spot at the White Islets where we can see Steller Sea Lions, lots of baby Seagulls, and sometimes some other wildlife as well!

Our motto is the tour doesn’t end until we’re back at the dock, but even here, a Great Blue Heron was waiting for us! We consider today to have been a successful day on the water.

All of the photos can be viewed below. They were taken by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Hayleigh Hilbert, and Val Watson.