You know what they say, there’s no party like a pec party! Wait, you’re saying that no one ever says that? Well, they should, and this tour is a great example of why!

We ended up spotting a bunch of humpback whales as we explored the Strait of Georgia today, starting with a pair of whales travelling together: Thunderbolt (BCX1675calf2023) and Calypso (BCY1226)! In addition to these two, who were travelling very closely together, there was a third humpback hanging back a few hundred meters. Unfortunately, there were only dorsal fins captured for this whale, and we haven’t been able to match it so far, but Thunderbolt and Calypso cooperated better, and we got to see the striking underside of their tails to confirm it was them! These tails are huge, about 20 feet across when fully grown, but both Thunderbolt and Calypso are young whales, 2 years and 6 years old, respectively. Since humpbacks don’t reach full size until between 10 - 15 years old, both of these whales have a ways to go before they will be the impressive 17 meters long and weigh 35 tons! Their tails are still huge, though, giving a ton of space to see the details in patterns and scarring that we use to identify them.

While enjoying our time with these two, something in the distance caught our attention. It seemed a humpback had some extra energy that it was trying to burn! We saw this whale breaching over and over again as we decided to head over there. By the time we arrived, it seemed that the energetic burst was over. We captured some photos of the dorsal fin, identifying the whale as the 2024 calf of Corona/Phi (BCX1416calf2024). This energy expenditure wouldn’t be for nothing, as the humpbacks will use these sorts of behaviours to knock off parasites or to communicate with others over longer distances. There is a third theory to these types of behaviours, and that is that it is fun! We don’t mind why they do it, though, we just enjoyed our brief glimpse of the behaviour from this young whale.

The next pair of humpbacks that we found was Iota (BCY1466) and Spock (BCY1134), spending time together. These two seemed like they were on a mission, travelling along and lifting their tails high in the air as they went. This made IDing them very nice and easy for us! Spock, in particular, is known for having a beautiful tail, and it seems like she likes to show it off! Most of the time we’ve seen her (if not every time), she will be doing these beautiful dives, and sometimes she also has some extra energy! This was the case when she decided it was time to start slapping her pectoral fins! Humpback pectoral fins are very impressive, measuring about 5 meters long when they’re fully grown. Just like the rest of the whales we’ve seen today, we aren’t sure if Spock would be fully grown, as their first sighting in the area was in 2021. While we sometimes see full-grown humpbacks switching feeding grounds and showing up in new areas, it is much more common amongst younger individuals. Similar to the breaching, slapping the pectoral fins at the surface like this may be to communicate something to the other humpbacks, knock off parasites, or even a warning to other species around it. Based on our observation, we think it might just be fun for them to do as well, since it’s sometimes accompanied by other surface behaviour. We spent time with these two, enjoying the looks at their tails and pectoral fins as we did!

After the whales, we headed over to Stinky Rock, where we found some of our other local Marine Mammals, the Steller Sea Lions! Although always entertaining to watch, there were a couple of other animals sharing the spotlight. The first, another common sight on these rocks, was a Bald Eagle watching over the rest of the activity at the haul-out. We can tell this one was an adult as well, since it had striking white head and tail feathers, and they don’t develop that until they are 5 years old! But what we got most excited about was floating by us in the water: A Fried Egg Jellyfish! These massive jellyfish reach astounding size, with their bell reaching about 60 cm across, and tentacles reaching lengths of up to 6 meters! The one we saw might not have been quite that big, but it was still impressive to look at.

We felt lucky as we returned to the harbour to have seen all this amazing wildlife, and that the Marine Naturalist onboard, Hayleigh Hilbert, captured such amazing photos throughout! You can see all these photos below.

June 5, 2025, 3:30 PM - Pecs in the air like we just don't care!