Every trip is a new adventure, and we are always eager to see what the waters have in store for us! Around Gabriola Island has been a ‘hotspot’ for humpbacks lately, so we decided to start the day heading that way. However, before we began our search, we visited the Gabriola Bluffs to view our Cormorants nesting. This is typically a stop we make near the end of our trips, but today we had a special reason for sticking closer to home and porting a bit later than usual. The Snowbirds, a team of pilots who perform aerial acts, were in town and about to start a show! After viewing the Bluffs, we slowly pattered along, and the roar of the plane engines overhead rang through the sky. The team of 9 planes steered with pinpoint precision, performing loops and dives. After watching the daring air performance, we continued on our way, eyes scanning the horizon for signs of whales.

There has likely been a large concentration of food around Gabriola Island and Entrance Island this year, as humpback whales have been staying here for extended periods of time. Why would you travel elsewhere if there’s a buffet right on your own doorstep, right?

After a bit of searching, we located our first humpback of the day! This whale was travelling and fluking, or bringing their tail up in the air. Using this unique pattern, we can comb through our catalogues to identify individual whales. We compare scratches, bumps, notches, and pigmentation patterns to identify them successfully. Still, even with a catalogue-worthy fluke photo, sometimes this can be tricky if the whale has new markings.
We successfully identified our first humpback as Barge Boy (KEX0078), an individual who has become a regular over the last two years. If you take a peek at their Happywhale profile (the hyperlink attached to their name above), you can see their fluke pigmentation has changed pretty dramatically over the years, and in 2025, they ended up with some new scratches and scrapes near the middle of their fluke! It’s important to document changes like this so catalogues can be updated and kept relevant as the whales mature. The ‘milky white’ pigmentation visible in Barge Boy’s first confirmed sightings back in 2022 could suggest that they were very young at that point, as it is relatively common for calves’ pigmentation to change during the first year or so of their life. Now, they’ve lost almost all of that white with just faint hints left on their fluke corners. We are excited to see how Barge Boy’s fluke continues to change as they mature, and hopefully continue to our area for years to come!

Once we left Barge Boy behind, we started adventuring along again, continuing to scan the horizon. Suddenly, a pair of whales was spotted! Similar to Barge Boy, these two were blowing (breathing at the surface, similar to smoke rising off the top of the water), diving, and fluking. We began the usual routine of taking some photos to identify who this pair was. These two turned out to be none other than Kappa (BCX0158) and Kappiroto (BCX0158 calf 2025), a mother-calf duo who have been exploring Gabriola’s coastline regularly lately. These two will likely continue to travel together for a few more months before they part ways. Usually, humpback calves stay by their mother’s side for roughly a year. In that time, they learn both the north and southbound migration routes, they are taught about the best areas to feed, and they are likely learning about any dangerous areas they should avoid as well. When you think about it, it’s amazing how much information they have to learn in such a relatively short period of time. Can you imagine a human infant needing to know all that info before they turn 2 years old?!

If you have been keeping up with our blogs, you may know that Kappa and Kappiroto have been spotted associating with a particular friend lately. That friend was not with them today; however, they were very close by! Smoke (BCX2183) was also busy fluking and diving, snacking away. While they were not obviously associating together, it’s quite possible Smoke, Kappa, and Kappiroto were talking to each other under the surface. Some calls have been documented from over 5,000 km away from the singing animal, meaning this tiny area would be nothing in comparison!
Smoke is one of the strange cases of humpbacks not sticking to their natal feeding grounds (the feeding grounds their mother taught them about). In 2021, Smoke appeared in our area with significant damage to their fluke. We are unsure what happened, but they have thankfully healed up and recovered since then. Since their injury, they have been returning to our area yearly. Interestingly, their mother, Flame, is an Alaskan whale, and Smoke spent their first year of life in that area. Smoke has also been cross-referenced to the Hawaiian breeding grounds. It appears that Smoke has decided it isn’t worth the effort to travel all the way up to Alaska when there are good areas to feed in our area, cutting a significant amount of travel time out of their migration route. It also seems that Smoke has formed friendships down here, as they have been associating with several different whales since they began returning to our area yearly. Sadly, humpback social dynamics are a topic shrouded in much mystery currently due to their extensive decimation during the whaling era. Hopefully, as we continue to observe and document behaviours, we will learn more about how they view social bonds in the future!

To wrap up the tour, our vessels departed in search of pinnipeds. We are currently visiting two locations in search of Harbour Seals and Steller Sea Lions: the UM buoy and a small set of rocky islets known as Stinky Rocks. Heading over to the buoy, several Steller Sea Lions were snoozing the day away, briefly peeking at us as we peeked back at them. Over at Stinky Rocks, we observed our Harbour Seals stretching and hunkering down for their afternoon nap, and we even saw a female Harlequin Duck waddling along the shoreline!

Photos by Marine Naturalists Aly Kohlman, Jordan Robinson, and Hayleigh Hilbert.

August 16, 2025, 3:30 PM - The Humpback Hangout by Gabriola Island continues!