July 6, 2025, 3:30 PM - An adventure across the Strait

Another beautiful trip awaited us on the afternoon of July 6th. The sun was shining, and the seas were calm, a great combination for spotting whales! It didn’t take very much time travelling before we spotted a group of whales not too far from Nanaimo, where we leave from. The tall, bushy blows of these humpback whales caught the eye of our crew, and we headed over. It seemed that we had found the same group of humpbacks that we had seen earlier in the day during our first tour (Niagara (BCY0057), Smoke/Squirrel (BCX2183), and Chandelle (BCX2140)), and interestingly, they were in basically the same spot. This is a good indicator that there is a lot of good food for them there, since humpbacks love to spend time in areas of high productivity. This high productivity leads to lots of food for them, and since they are trying to eat around a ton of food every single day, having lots of food is important! They accomplish the consumption of all this food via filter feeding, using the 400 plates of Baleen that hang from the roof of their mouth as a seive, letting the water out but catching all the delicious morsels of food. The food that they aim for is quite small, with Krill being a main one, but also small schooling fish. You can guess what the main diet of the humpbacks is if you are lucky enough to see them poop at the surface! Just like how krill turns flamingos pink, it also turns the humpback whales’ poop pink! If they are having more fish in their diet, it takes on more of a purple hue.

While no poop was spotted today, we feel safe in saying that krill is likely what they were after here! No matter what they were eating, it was great to watch these gentle giants dive in sync under the surface each time. Once again, the call came on the radio while we were watching these whales: some orca were spotted travelling not too far from us! We decided to leave these three humpbacks behind and head in that direction.

Again, the orca were close to the Sunshine Coast, this time slightly closer to Howe Sound, but the whales that we were seeing were different. This afternoon, we had the T036As and the T099s spending time together just south of Bowen Island!

T036A Leland ♀ (1990)
T036A2 Kailas ♀ (2012)
T036A3 Storm/Mike III ♂ (2015)
T036A5 Squall ♂ (2021)

T099 Bella ♀ (1984)
T099B Holly ♀ (2007)
T099C Barakat ♂ (2009)
T099D Puck ♀ (2015)
T099E Qwiin qwiin oo qwii la ♀ (2021)

This t-party was a real party indeed, with lots of breaching, tail slapping, and spy hopping while they were at the surface. Surface activity like this is not uncommon to see during socialization events, since the whales are no longer as worried about being detected by their prey. Since the Biggs Orca are the ones who are hunting other marine mammals, they have to be a bit sneaky about it most of the time to avoid being detected, this means less talking between individuals, smaller pods sizes, and less surface activity than their fish-eating resident counterparts. But, during a social gathering, that all goes out the window. These whales have a nice healthy fat reserve so even in times where they might not be consuming their daily reccommended calories, they will still have plenty of energy!

This energy and playfulness was amazing to witness today, and we enjoyed every minute we got to spend with the animals! The trip was ended with a look at some other wildlife as well, which was the perfect end to an amazing day. Please enjoy all of the great photos taken by the onboard Marine Naturalists Hayleigh Hilbert and Jordan Robinson, available for you below!

A spyhopping humpback! Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Smoke’s fluke. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Niagara beginning to dive. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Niagara’s fluke. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

From left to right: Chandelle, Niagara, and Smoke. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Smoke’s dorsal fin. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Chandelle’s dorsal fin. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Niagara’s dorsal fin with a friend’s blowhole beside him. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Chandelle preparing to dive. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Chandelle fluking. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Chandelle (left) beside Niagara (right). Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Left to right: Niagara, Chandelle, and Smoke. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Niagara preparing to dive. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T036A3 Storm/Mike III. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T036A2 Kailas. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T099D Puck and a friend. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T099C Barakat. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

A cute little spyhop! Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T099 Bella and her son T099C Barakat. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T036A5 Squall. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T099C Barakat and T099 Bella. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Socializing amongst the pod members. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T036 Leland and T099C Barakat. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

T099 Bella and T099C Barakat. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

Catching air! Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

T099C Barakat and a friend. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

T099C Barakat with T099E Qwiin qwiin oo qwii la behind him. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Keta watching at the Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Nesting cormorants at the bluffs. Photo by Jordan Robinson.

One of the gorgeous sandstone formations at the Gabriola Bluffs. Photo by Hayleigh Hilbert.

Author: Val WatsonJuly 6, 2025WhalesComment