You know whale watching season is in full swing when the humpback whales begin to return to our waters! As migratory animals, humpback whales split their time between two distinct regions: their breeding/calving grounds and their feeding grounds. The waters of the Salish Sea and around Vancouver Island are considered part of the latter, where humpbacks come during the summer months to gorge themselves on food.

The Strait of Georgia is particularly rich in nutrients—each tablespoon of seawater here is estimated to contain over a million microorganisms! This creates a strong base for the food chain. These microorganisms are consumed by slightly larger ones, which are then eaten by krill and small schooling fish—the primary targets for our massive humpback whales. Each humpback requires around a ton of food every day. Since they feed on such tiny prey, they end up consuming millions of organisms daily. That’s a far more impressive hunting number than orcas, who only need about two seals per day! Feeding low on the food chain gives large whales an energetic advantage, as less energy is lost between trophic levels.

Today, we spotted five different humpback whales taking full advantage of this abundant buffet. The first was a known female named Barracuda (BCY0649)! Females have an even higher energy requirement, especially when they’re pregnant. Barracuda brought a calf back to our waters last year, so there’s a good chance she may be pregnant again. Having a calf every two years is quite common for female humpbacks. Since the calf travels with its mother during its first season in the feeding grounds—nursing on her fat-rich milk and nearly doubling in size—it’s an immense energy demand. Typically, females aren’t pregnant while still nursing, though there are rare cases of “supermoms” managing both. More commonly, once the mother and calf part ways after returning to the breeding grounds, she becomes pregnant again, spending the next 11 months growing the new calf while rebuilding her energy stores. Being either pregnant or nursing increases energy demands by about 1.5 times—doing both simultaneously means the feeding grounds need to be extra productive! Only time will tell if our prediction for Barracuda proves true.

After spending time with Barracuda, we encountered a younger whale: Scuba (BCY1225)! Born in 2019, Scuba has already had a rough start. In a single year, this whale was entangled twice, altering the trailing edge of their tail flukes and leaving a large mass of scar tissue on the peduncle, where ropes had likely wrapped tightly. Although a sad story, Scuba is an incredible example of resilience among humpback whales.

Following our visit with Scuba, the two boats out on the water today split up, each finding a different group of humpbacks to end the tour.

The semi-covered boat encountered Calypso (BCY1226), another 2019 calf! Calypso also appeared focused on feeding. It’s thought that young whales like Calypso don’t spend as much time down south as older whales. While it’s possible both Calypso and Scuba are now sexually mature, depending on their sex, they may not yet be reproducing successfully. Female humpbacks have been known to bring back calves as young as five years old, but males typically don’t succeed until they’re much larger and more experienced. Competition among males is fierce—competitive groups gather in the breeding grounds to impress females by slapping fins and tails and singing their powerful, elaborate songs. Some of these songs can go on for 24 hours straight! Because it’s energetically demanding and success is low for younger males, many of them head north early to avoid wasting valuable fat stores.

When they return early, these younger whales can recover their energy faster than the adults, leading to more surface activity earlier in the season, which is exactly what the open boat experienced! As they approached their group of humpbacks, they were treated to the sight of massive bodies launching out of the water. This behaviour, called breaching, is typically more common later in the year once whales have had more time to feed, as it’s incredibly energy-intensive. One breach can use the same amount of energy a human burns running a marathon! While humpbacks have more energy stored than we do, it still amounts to roughly 1% of their daily energy in a single movement, truly impressive.

By the time the boat arrived, the whales had settled down a bit, which made them easier to identify. They turned out to be two young individuals: X_pialidocious (KEY059) and Maite (BCX0565calf2022). After their energetic display, they seemed to tire themselves out and continued with more relaxed travel. X-pialidocious still gave us a lovely show of their striking white fluke as they dove beneath the surface.

It was a delightful mix of humpback whales to spend the day with, and our Marine Naturalists, Aly Kohlman and Hayleigh Hilbert, captured some incredible photos of the encounters, which you can enjoy below!

May 27, 2025 - Humpbacks everywhere we look!