April 3, 2021 - A small humpback whale in Trincomali and lots of pinnipeds!

On April 3rd we headed out of the Nanaimo harbour on our 3rd tour of the season. After 2 great days on the water we were excited to see what we found today.
We traveled through the Gulf islands looking for whales and found a single young humpback whale traveling in Trincomali Channel.

The Humpback whales that travel to the Salish Sea every summer come from 3 main breeding grounds, Mexico, Hawaii and Central America. Most of the Humpbacks are still south or on route to our waters, but every now and then we have some hold overs, who decide not to go south for the winter or who come back very early.
The little whale we found today was ID’ed as BCX0749’s 2019 Calf Hammer. This little one was being a bit elusive, but we did manage to get some great shots of that tail, which helped us to ID the whale.

We aren’t sure why Humpbacks occasionally over winter here, but one theory is that they will over winter if they have no reason to travel south, and would rather hang out here with all the food. This could be because they are too young to mate, like our little one today.

Enjoy the other photos taken today by our Marine Naturalist Val Watson.

We are running daily tours at noon! Call our office at 250-667-5177, email at info@vancouverislandwhalewatch.com, or come down to our brand new office on the waterfront, 90 Front Street, to book your whale watching adventure!