It’s one of the best times of the year to go whale watching, and September 18th demonstrated why! Hundreds of humpback whales are preparing for their migration, and multiple killer whale pods are in the area.
We started to head north through perfectly calm waters, and spotted some big splashes in the distance. It was two humpback whales, and one of them was pec-slapping! Humpback whale pectoral fins can grow up to almost 5 metres, or nearly a third of the whale’s body length. That’s longer than a blue whale pectoral fin! It seemed like these humpback whales were socializing.
After the humpback whales finished playing, we continued our journey north deep into Howe Sound. This location is one of the most beautiful places to find whales, with towering green mountains everywhere. We were close to Squamish when we located two pods of killer whales, the T23s and T124Ds, hunting a sea lion!
The hunt ended fairly quickly, and it wasn’t clear if the sea lion got away at all. We didn’t witness any prey sharing, where the orcas will split up their kill equally and celebrate afterwards, so we’re inclined to believe the sea lion somehow got away.
On our way home, we spotted more blows in the distance just south of Bowen Island. It was the humpback whale (BCY0961) Dreamer and her calf, milling in circles with the Vancouver skyline in the background. Dreamer is an unusual whale—she was first spotted using the California feeding grounds in 2017/2018, but in recent years, she seems to exclusively feed in the Salish Sea. It’s rare for humpback whales to switch between feeding grounds!
It was beautiful watching mother and calf swim in slow, lazy circles, before it was time to leave and we headed back to Steveston.
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