This morning was packed full of adventure - ! As our boats Kula and Cascadia headed out, we pointed northward into the Strait of Georgia. Not long after our search began, we caught sight of some blows! Off in the distance, four humpback whales had been spotted. As we watched our humpbacks they began to fluke, and that was our cue to start snapping photos to ID them. Humpback whales can be individually identified and catalogued using photographs of the underside of their tail fluke. Using each humpback’s unique colour pattern, scars, and notches, we can differentiate whales from each other. Using this technique, we identified 7 of our known whales: Spotlight (BCX1480), Wisp (BCY1464), Neptune (BCY1021), Crackle (BCY1227), Anvil (BCZ0410), Apollo (BCY0862), Mow (KEY0063), as well as one Unknown friend!

Wisp was flipped on their back with their pectoral fins stretched high into the sky, slapping the water surface. These pectoral fins are huge, growing upwards of 16 feet (5 meters) long, and when they are slapped at the surface, the sound rings for miles around. Besides pec slapping, there was a lot of diving going on,

Many of BC’s humpbacks feed here during the summer months and make their way to Hawaii once the weather gets colder to breed and give birth. Our humpbacks are busy eating mostly Krill, but will also happily snack on small schooling fish and copepods. Once our waters start to get colder and winter rolls in, these humpback whales will make their way down south to their breeding grounds. Our humpbacks usually go to either Hawaii or Mexico to breed and give birth. During a humpback’s migration southbound and back, these whales will fast, meaning they may go on an upwards of 6 months fast (period without feeding). Because of this, they are famished when they return to our area the following summer, and it is common to see them eating away for weeks as they pack the pounds back on, preparing to do it all over again the following fall.

Once our time with these humpbacks wrapped up, our vessels continued their adventure northwards. We had heard of an orca sighting west of South Thormanby Island earlier in the day, so we headed there to check it out. Upon arrival, our boats spotted two famous Transient orca - Whidbey and Chainsaw!

T065 Whidbey II ♀ (~1971)
T063 Chainsaw ♂ (~1978)

Chainsaw is very iconic and can be easily identified by his two large notches in his massive dorsal fin. So iconic that he’s the whale that is showcased on our company logo! If you swing by our office, you can compare your height to his door sticker, which is printed to scale at a whopping 6ft tall!

Initially, Whidbey and Chainsaw were travelling very spread out, just meandering along. Near the end of our time with them, they came together, mother and son side by side, as we said our goodbyes to them.

As we departed our orca duo, we quickly spotted even more humpbacks! Our open vessel Cascadia had found two more humpbacks - this time it was Chinook (BCY0996) travelling with Two Spot (BCZ0432). Chinook was busy slapping away at the surface of the water with their massive pectoral fins. Often it looked like Chinook was hitting Two Spot with those big pecs - poor Two Spot! Aside from pec slapping, the pair was also spotted trumpeting and breaching, likely enjoying the opportunity to socialize and

While Cascadia was visiting Chinook and Two Spot, Kula spotted another different pair of humpbacks! These two were identified as Eeyore (BCY1222) and Achilles (BCX2075calf2024). These young whales were travelling fin-to-fin, potentially looking for lunch together. It is becoming more and more common for young whales to be spotted together like this, which is wonderful considering that not that long ago, our humpbacks were spotted travelling alone most of the time.

Shortly after Kula departed Eeyore and Achilles, another surprise appeared - the T002Cs were travelling together nearby!

T002C Tasu ♀ (1989)
T002C1 Rocky ♂ (2002)
T002C3 Lucy ♀ (2011)
T002C5 Zippy (2020)
T002C6 (2025)

We were extremely excited to see this pod because of their newest edition. T002C6, the tiny orange calf amongst them, is an absolutely adorable baby! Today they were busy zipping alongside their mother T002C Tasu. The T002Cs have had a bit of a rough time in the last 5 years, losing two of its members, T002C2 Tumbo and T002C4 Kano, within 2 years of each other. T002C6 is the first new child since then, hopefully indicating a bright and positive future for the pod. Today the pod was just travelling along, enjoying some family time as they popped around looking for a snack.

Finally our time with whales was up, and we had to continue back towards our home port. We made a quick stop to see some of our pinnipeds, the Harbour Seals, snoozing the afternoon away. After that, we continued back to Nanaimo, wrapping up another highly successful day out on the water!

Please enjoy these photos taken by Marine Naturalists Jordan Robinson, Desarae Poier, and Val Watson.

June 22, 2025, 10:30 AM - 15 whales in one trip!