It was another action-packed trip for us! We ended up leaving Nanaimo and our boats spread out, with one heading north, and the other two heading south. We often will do this so that the boats are searching different areas, increasing our chances of finding something. It paid off for both sets of boats today, as the boat that went north found two humpback whales travelling together: Chi (BCZ0414calf2021) and Portrait (BCY1223). Both of these whales are young whales, born to relatively famous Salish Sea whales Zephyr and Fallen Knight, respectively. Young whales seem to have a little extra energy than the older ones, and Chi and Portrait showed this off, with a couple of cartwheels and pectoral fin slapping.

The other boats ended up finding their own set of whales further south, which we identified as Olympus (BCX2075) and Scratchy (BCY1022)! Olympus is also part of a famous family line with Divot as her mother, and Big Mama her grandmother! Interestingly, Divot is also Zephyr’s mother, making Olympus Chi’s Aunt! Scratchy’s first sighting is from 2016, making them at least 8 years old but not much else is known about them.

While it’s pretty cool getting to see multiple whales from the same family line, it’s not surprising. Humpback whales have high site fidelity, meaning that the vast majority of the time the calves of a humpback whale will return to the same waters that their mom frequented. This means that our waters are filled with Big Mama’s family line. Given that there are 15 of them now, the chances of seeing them in the Salish Sea are relatively high. No matter, we always love seeing humpback whales during our tours, no matter their family tree!

Finally, all three boats spent some time with our final pair of humpbacks: Wisp (BCY1333calf2021) and Kata (BCY1218). These whales seemed to be resting in the area, moving relatively slowly through the water and lazily lifting their tails above the surface for their longer dive. At one point these whales got a little extra energy with one of them throwing their tail up out of the air, but it was just once before continuing on their travels.

We headed from these whales to see if any Pinnieds was hanging out on Stinky Rocks this afternoon and were greeted by the growls and grunts of the Steller Sea Lions. These sea lions are the largest that we see during our tours, with the adult males weighing over 2500 pounds when fully grown. The females are also quite impressive at 800 pounds each. They also seem to not care much about personal space, as we saw them crawling on each other, fighting, and biting when others got too close. We also saw some of the much calmer Harbour Seals here, before we continued back towards Nanaimo.

With one final stop to see all the Wildlife at the Gabriola Bluffs, our trips came to an end. It was an amazing time spent with all these whales. Our onboard naturalists Vanessa Vereschahen, Aly Kohlman, and Lucy Willis got some amazing photos during all these encounters which can be viewed below!

August 24, 2024, 3:30 pm - Triple Humpback Pairs in the Strait of Georgia

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