The last day of May brought sunshine, calm seas and Humpback, after Humpback, after Humpback!.
A trip to the north side of the Strait of Georgia took some searching but it was definitely worth the wait as not just one but up to TEN Humpback Whales were spotted. The clear weather allowed for an extended range of visibility and it seemed that whichever direction we looked a Humpback whale was spotted. Some of the Humpback Whales identified on the day were Scuba, Schooner, Ocular, Oracle, Graphite, Wisp, Cirque, Moran and Kelpie.
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Their behavior was the typical restful sights we see often; surfacing for a breath, followed by a dive showing us their tail flukes as they descend to the depths.
However, just as we were about to leave, an absolutely extraordinary sight came before us...BREACHING! The thundering splash from the first humpback breach caught everyone's attention as we were then spoilt with two more breaches by two individuals!
Check out the action caught on camera!
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Breaching is when a whale propels their entire body out of the water. It is a bucket list sight for many especially as it is such a rarity. Humpback whales tend to do it more frequently than other species but we still don't know for certain, why they do this. One theory is that they breach in order to communicate with other whales as breaching occurs in both the mating and feeding grounds. As there were so many whales around on this particular day, this could be the rest why we saw this fascinating sight. We never know when, where or if they are going to do this but on this lucky day it was definitely worth the wait!
Thanks to all who joined Captain Matthew and Naturalist Shauna. We look forward to seeing you all again! All photos/videos were taken using a Canon camera with a telescopic lens and cropping.
