We had beautiful calm seas as two of our boats headed out of the harbour this afternoon. After a morning filled with humpbacks, we were almost certain we could find some of them again.

While we’re on the water, we’re constantly scanning the horizon for signs of whales. For humpbacks, the first thing we usually see is the blow. That can look like a smoke stack coming off the surface and is around 3 meters tall. You can see it from over a mile away! We also scan for their dorsal fins rising out of the water, or their fluke, which can be 20 feet from tip to tip! Occasionally if they breach or create any sort of splash, we can spot them that way as well.

Today, it wasn’t too long before we spotted our first blows! These belonged to Malachite (KEY0047), Slice (BCX1057 calf 2021), and Callisto (BCX0854calf2021)! This is an interesting trio as all 3 humpbacks are the same age. Most of the time, we have no idea how old whales are - however, all 3 of these whales were originally seen travelling alongside their mothers back in 2021. It seemed like Malachite was having a blast when we arrived on the scene, with a ton of tail slapping happening. You might be able to guess was tail slapping entails from the name. It is when the humpback whales lift their tail out of the water, sometimes as they are swimming normally or sometimes they are upside-down, and they bring that huge tail crashing back down. It seems like when the whales are doing this, they might be trying to “loosen things up” in their digestive system, since we often see them pooping while they do it. Looking through our photos this was the case with Malachite, as we saw the telltale signs of defecation in the water, the red plume of krill-filled poop! Even if it was a bathroom-driven event, it was still very interesting to watch!

After departing these three, our vessels went back into search mode to try and locate more whales. It didn’t take too long to find another pair close to Halibut Bank - these two were identified as Sage (BCX2073) and Velvet (BCY1186) travelling together and fluking. Associations like this seem to be common around the Salish Sea these days, as a lot of the humpbacks that we see seem to be paired up. These associations are usually short-term, lasting for only a few hours before they go their own ways, or trade out for another partner. Sometimes it can be a bit longer, a few days to weeks but most humpbacks seem to be more fickle than others. It seems to depend on the personality of the whales themselves, as some we notice are more likely to be paired up than others.

After visiting these two our boats split up in search of other whales. They were both lucky and found their own whales to watch!
After this pair, our Semi-covered vessel Kula then found Trooper (BCX1854) travelling solo, feeding away with a picture-perfect Mt.Baker in the background. Not even 5 minutes later they found ANOTHER humpback too - this one was identified as Bullet (BCX1658) who was also happily fluking away. It’s always amazing whenever we can locate and watch our humpbacks as they were previously thought to be extirpated (locally extinct) from our area, but to find 6 back to back within an hour is phenomenal!

The next whale that was spotted on this adventure was Beak (BCX1606) travelling solo! Beak seemed to have some extra energy as well, as we saw him breaching and slapping his massive pectoral fins onto the water. While we aren’t 100% sure why the whales will do this one of the leading theories is that it’s fun! It sure seemed that way while we were watching Beak here anyways.

Both boats ended up stopping for other wildlife with one going to Stinky Rocks and the other to the White Islets, both being Haul-out sites for the Steller Sea Lions and some Harbour Seals. Due to the high tides we didn’t see much of the seals, just their shiny heads sticking out of the water!

On the way back to Nanaimo, one of our boats came cross three other whales, just stopping for long enough to snap a photo to get an ID and figured out that it was Tempest (BCX0837) and her calf seen first, shortly followed by a fluke from Polyphemus (BCZ0342).

The onboard naturalists Aly Kohlman and Vanessa Vereschahen managed to snap some amazing photos of the whales and other wildlife during the tour, all of which can be viewed below!

August 3, 2024, 3:30 pm - Humpback party in the Strait

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