Tag Archives: Humpback Whales

Humpback Whale “Fin”

Humpback whale Fin?

This is a humpback whale on its side waving a pectoral fin. This flipper is very long (five meters/yards), between 1/4 and 1/3 the length of its body, and has large knobs on the leading edge. From a distance it can be confused with an orca dorsal fin, which is tomorrow’s post.

 

 

Humpback Whales Visit

Humpback CloseHumpback whaleFebruary 1st post shows our rest stop at Telegraph Cove on a whale watching day but it is not where we eat lunch. Our picnic lunch is normally in Blackfish Sound where we view most of the humpback whales. We either tie to a kelp bed or drift in open water if there is not much boat traffic. Drifting is my preferred lunch spot as we often have visitors. Unfortunately, in a good way, this frequently extends our lunch break as the whales demand pictures just as we have the picnic spread out and are eating. It is amazing how fast food in hand is replaced with cameras when a whale surfaces close to the boat.

 

 

 

Humpback Whales Feeding 5 of 5

Humpback lunging

This last photo was over thirty minutes after the first photo posted. We had watched the humpbacks feeding all this time and they had moved away from the Oliver Clark and it had started to slowly move away from the herring ball but the whales kept feeding in the area for another fifteen minutes. It was an experience my guest will never forget. I know that it is one of the highlights of fifteen years of guiding for Grizzly Bear Lodge.

 

 

 

Humpback Whales Feeding 4 of 5

Very Close

Two minutes after the previous posting was the lunge that made the owner of the boat think he might need a larger boat. I know this because we stopped and talk and I eventually sent him a series of photos for his collection. This lunge was less than two meters (yards) from the side of the Oliver Clark….

 

 

 

Humpback Whales Feeding 2 of 5

whales lunge feed

The boat is the 17 meters (55.8 ft) Oliver Clark II from Halfmoon Bay BC. The boat was drifting with engines off and this seemed to encourage the feeding whales. The lunges started away from the boat and slowly started to get closer to the herring, which were hiding under the boat….

 

 

Humpback Whales Feeding 1 of 5

Herring ball

Contrary to the blog title this is not a photo of a humpback whale lunge feeding but it does show the reason for the lunges in the next four posting. The boiling water off the bow of this boat and beside the skiff is a massive herring ball. The ball or rather large school of herring surrounds the boat….

 

 

Marine Mammals Airborne 2 of 3

Humpback breaching

Many reasons have been suggested for breaching humpback whales.
They often breach when they are in groups, suggesting social reasons, such as an assertion of dominance, courting or warning of danger Other widely accepted reasons is to dislodge parasites from the skin or that the behaviour may simply be a form of play.  Some believe that a breach allows the whale to breathe in air that is not close to the surface, which may aid breathing in rough seas. From my experience it is often the young whales that do repeated breaches which agree with the play theory and when we have rough water on a whale watching day we also seem to have more breaches. To be honest the reason is not that important the action is just spectacular.

 

 

Transient Orca 2 of 2

Orca coming

 

Yesterdays and today’s photo shows that not all days are ideal whale watching days but it is still possible to get some good pictures. On this day we were trying to keep up with a pod of transient orca with three other boats but we had all lost contact so shut off our motors to wait. We were the lucky boat in that they popped up all around our boat. As today’s photo shows they circled the boat and came quite close. The advantage of the rougher waters is that the orcas tend to come out of the water a little more to breathe.