August has been an incredible month, full of many amazing encounters, and we were so excited to get back out and create more memories for today’s guests! The full fleet was once again out, and the afternoon started with us adventuring out into the Strait of Georgia. The vessels split up, each taking their own routes. This led to different boats having different encounters at the start of the day.

The first boat to encounter a whale was Kula, our semi-covered boat. This little whale was travelling along, occasionally fluking as they went. After grabbing a photo of the underside of their fluke, we identified them as BCY1474, the 2021 calf of Sherwina (BCY0961). They were likely busy eating krill or schooling fish deeper in the water column.

At the same time as Kula, our open boat Keta found a pair of humpbacks of their own. While watching these two, we did not get any photos of their flukes. Thankfully, the larger of the two whales has a very distinct dorsal fin, which we used to identify them as Graze (BCY0523) and her calf (BCY0253 calf 2025). Graze is a notorious non-fluker, so it wasn’t too surprising not to see her big, beautiful tail today! These two appeared to be happily travelling along, occasionally diving for a bite to eat.

While Kula and Keta enjoyed their encounters, Cascadia pressed on, eager to find some humpbacks of their own. They made their way over to McCall Bank off the Sunshine Coast, an area that has been teeming with whale activity today. This turned out to be an excellent idea, as they found not one, not two, but six humpbacks travelling and associating together!

Once Kula and Keta heard about the humpback ‘party’ occurring at McCall Bank, they departed their whales and started to cross over to join in on the action. Along the way, Keta had a very brief sighting of a small, non-fluking humpback. After comparing scars and dorsal fins, this young whale was identified as Starry Knight (BCX0915 calf 2024) - a yearling who has made headlines recently. Poor Starry Knight was entangled in July and ended up entangled a second time in August. We hope they are able to recover and that their life gets easier from here on out!

Our Naturalist on board began the exciting job of identifying the members of our humpback party, using a combination of dorsal fins and flukes. With this, they identified five whales, including Anvil (BCZ0410), Mow (BCY0523 calf 2023), Wiggins (BCY1469), Scuttle (BCX1795), Forge (BCZ0410 calf 2022), and at least two Unknowns.

These whales were associating in pairs, but they also seemed to be switching which whale they paired up with as we watched them! At the start, Anvil and Mow were travelling together, blowing, diving, and fluking. Shortly after our encounter began, Anvil left Mow and began associating with Wiggins instead. These two were also travelling and fluking together. After this pair met up, a lone humpback was spotted a bit further out breaching. Shortly after that, it was confirmed that this individual was Forge, and they were spotted inching closer and closer to Anvil and Wiggins as they travelled along. This is very interesting, as Forge is actually one of Anvil’s older calves! Forge caught up to the pair, but only travelled with them for a few surfaces before breaking off by themselves again.

After leaving Anvil, Mow met up with Scuttle. Scuttle and Mow travelled together for a bit, but eventually Scuttle broke away from Mow and headed on out with another humpback that we unfortunately were unable to get ID photos of, leaving Mow to travel solo.

These intriguing and fleeting associations are a perfect reminder of how little we currently know about humpback social dynamics. Within the last decade, it was still widely believed that humpbacks were solitary animals and preferred to travel alone rather than travel with companions. However, in the past years, this has become far from true, with pairs and trios becoming much more common sights. Hopefully, as we continue to research and learn about these gentle giants, we will gain a better understanding of how they perceive short-term and long-term associations!

Once our time with the humpback hangout had come to an end, we resumed exploring the Salish Sea in search of other wildlife. Cascadia did happen to have one more humpback whale encounter, though, as they spotted a pair fluking together. These two were identified as Crater (BCX1565) and Tempest (BCX0837), a pair that has had quite a few sightings together this year. Is Crater trying to woo Tempest for the next breeding season? Are they simply best friends? We may never know, but we are curious to see if Tempest returns with a calf next year!

The next stop on the adventure was over to the White Islets, an area brimming with biodiversity. Multiple pinniped species can be found here, as well as a plethora of different bird species! Our boats cruised over and witnessed several Steller Sea Lions snoozing high up on the rocks, plus some busy splashing away in the shallows. There was also a large reddish-brown spot visible high up on the rocks today, which could potentially be the remains of the afterbirth from a little pup being born! Besides the sea lions, there was also a lone Harbour Seal slumbering away by the ocean’s edge. In terms of birds, the White Islets had a bit of everything today - a parcel of Black Oystercatchers, a gulp of Cormorants, and various Gulls were waddling the rocks, enjoying the evening warmth.

After taking in the sights at the White Islets, our boats departed, crossing the Strait of Georgia back towards Vancouver Island, and making our way back to home port, concluding an amazing trip around the Salish Sea!

Please enjoy these photos taken by Marine Naturalists Val Watson, Hayleigh Hilbert, and Jordan Robinson!

August 22, 2025, 3:30 PM - Humpback hangouts with some odd associations