On Sept 7th we had 2 exciting tours.
Our morning tour got to hang out with Anvil and Fader, 2 adult Humpbacks. These 2 were traveling slowly and doing shallow feeding dives around Porlier Pass, just East of Valdez Island. We’re enjoying all the time we get with these gentle giants before the leave on their annual migration. Once they head out of our waters it’ll be nearly 6 months before we see them again!

Anvil (left) and Fader (right). Photo by Val Watson, (10:30).

Anvil. Besides her distinct dorsal shape, Anvil also has a large bump on her body in front of her dorsal on the left side. Can you spot it in this photo? Photo by Rebecca Stirling, (10:30).

Midday snooze. Photo by Rebecca Stirling, (10:30).

In the afternoon we didn’t have a regular tour going out, so we decided to do a staff KETA trip instead.
We work with Keta Coastal Conservation, and share all of our humpback data with them to help track Humpback behaviour and populations.
During this trip our staff headed out with their cameras and paper work, searching for blows on the water. It took a while to find them, but we eventually found 4 humpbacks off the North West side of Texada Island.
We settled in with one of the pairs and prepared for their next surface.

The pair we settled on watching was Crater and Spotlight. Crater was very easy to ID, as their dorsal is unique, and he is also the first Humpback in our Keta Humpback Whale ID catalogue. Spotlight however took some time to ID. In fact, we had to wait until we got back to our office to figure out who Spotlight was, as their fluke had changed enough that it no longer matched there photo ID in the catalogue.

During our time with Crater and Spotlight we conducted a Focal Follow. A focal follow is when we monitor and record all of a whales behaviour within a set time. Our follows are done for 30 minutes and we record every behaviour the whale does, including breathing. One of our staff was calling the behaviour, while a second person recorded the time and type of behaviour, and our other staff took tons of pictures.

Focal follows can be an excellent way to record behaviours and make notes of unusual or new behaviours. During our time with Crater and Spotlight we focused our follow on Spotlight. We were able to count 3 flukes, and recorded 2 deep dives, with times of 8 minutes and 6.5 minutes with lots of surface activity after their dives. While this follow didn’t show us any new or unusual behaviours, it did give us a chance to see a whale that we haven’t seen in a long time and update our catalogue with new photos of these whales.

Spotlight (left) and Crater (right).Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, (3:30).

Spotlight. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster, (3:30).

Spotlights old ID photo from the Keta Catalogue

If you compare the image above, with the image below you can see that Spotlight has a new large white slash mark on the right side of its tail. This mark looks like an entanglement scar, meaning since spotlight was last seen they were wrapped up in some sort of fishing gear, either a net or crab trap line. Our Humpbacks frequently show up with new scaring like this, which is why we have to update our catalogues so frequently. Now that we have these new photos we will be able to ID Spotlight much quicker the next time we see them.

Crater (left) and Spotlight (right). Photo by Rebecca Stirling, (3:30).

Crater. Photo by Rebecca Stirling, (3:30).

Crater (front) and Spotlight (Behind). Photo by Rebecca Stirling, (3:30).

September 7, 2021 - Anvil and Fader in the morning, KETA expedition in the afternoon