Kula and Keta headed out together for another amazing trip out on the water. They went off in slightly different directions to maximize their coverage, and after a brief chat from their onboard Naturalists, we began our search for whales. We have been incredibly lucky lately with many sightings all over the place, and we were eager to once more explore and see what we could find.

Heading out and over the top of Gabriola Island, it didn’t take us long at all to have our first sighting of the day. Many tall bushy blows rose from the surface of the water, followed by dark backs as the animals travelled along. We had found a group of humpback whales travelling and associating together!

Naturalists Hayleigh and Evan began working on identifying who was present, grabbing photos of each whale’s dorsal fin, and fluke when possible. Small groups had formed, with one trio to one side, a solo to the other, and a couple seeming to dart between groups, leading to a tricky scene for identification. After some comparison, we confirmed that there were at least five whales present, identified as Split Fluke (BCX1068) and Geometry (BCZ0338) associating together, with Kraken/Monarch/Pyramid (BCZ0180) bouncing around off to the side, and Europa (BCX0854) and Tag (BCX0429) meandering around the middle.

Unlike many other whale species, humpback whales do not show much in the form of sexual dimorphism, meaning males and females look nearly identical. Because of this, many of our whales are listed as Gender Unknown, sometimes for their entire lives. This encounter was extra interesting though, as surprisingly, every whale present was confirmed male or female.

Europa and Split Fluke have both brought calves back to our area over the years, which has helped us confirm that they are females. Geometry, Tag, and Kraken/Monarch/Pyramid are all older whales, with Happywhale sightings confirming that they are all at least 18 years old. At this point, if they were females, they likely would have already had calves. Age is a factor sometimes used to infer genders for humpbacks for this reason.

However, while the species doesn’t show much sexual dimorphism, it is important to note that it does have one physical difference that can be used to determine gender: A grapefruit-sized bump known as the Hemispherical Lobe. Scientists still are unsure what this protrusion’s purpose is, but it is noted that only females have them. So, if a whale is tail lobbing (slapping their tail upside down on the surface) or breaching (jumping out of the water), sometimes you can confirm from photos captured in those moments. It is very tricky to do, as water often obscures the details along their peduncle where the lobe is located, but it isn’t impossible!

The day was still young though, and after enjoying our time with the “humpback soup” we headed out to continue our trips. Making our way to Valdes Island, we made a quick stop along the coast to a small group of rocky islets cheekily named “Stinky Rocks”. Here, Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals haul out on the rocks to rest. These areas are also valuable spaces for them to avoid predators, such as the Transient orca who patrol through our waters.

Heading out, we entered into the Southern Gulf Islands and started travelling along once more. You never really know what you will find when you begin to search, and funnily enough, the boats located not one, but two separate whale encounters on the inside shortly after!

Keta was first, when they spotted a lone humpback whale travelling close to Kulleet Bay near Yellowpoint. A quick photo of their dorsal and fluke helped us confirm that this was Nalu (BCY1072).

At the same time, Kula had located whales near Round Island, a few minutes east of Keta. This time, it was a pair of black dorsal fins – two orca were travelling together northbound. Cameras came up and photos were taken, confirming this pair as the T101s:

T101 Reef ♀ (≤1969)
T101B Lagoon ♂ (1997)

As they travelled along, T101 Reef seemed extra excited, as she spyhopped out of the water. This interesting behaviour is always incredible to see, as seeing the intense countershading around an orca’s body and getting a peek at their eyepatches is very interesting. Reef in particular has a very unique eyepatch, dotted with a couple freckles. These are visible in the photos below – see if you can spot them!

As the pair continued on their way, they soon crossed through Dodd Narrows into Northumberland Channel. We had a few more glances at them before we said our goodbyes and slowly made our way away.

It had been a fantastic day full of many different encounters, but it was now time to wrap it up. The T101s had brought us right back outside of our home port. We meandered our way back into dock, concluding an excellent double species day out on the Salish Sea.

Today’s photos were taken by Marine Naturalists Hayleigh Hilbert and Evan Hessels – please enjoy them below!