Photo Credit: Jackie Hildering

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

From the Wheelhouse:

Major humpback action again today, in the most beautiful of sunny skies and calm seas.

It was our joy to spend the morning with the students and teachers from the Wagalus School from Fort Rupert.

The most amazing opportunity to learn about the ecosystem presented itself as we saw diving birds force small schooling fish to the surface where the gulls got a chance to eat them. Then, suddenly the gulls all lifted off and a huge humpback mouth came up through the fish. After this lunge feed, the humpback then breached and slapped its tail repeatedly. Some of the students helped to identify this whale as "Ripple" who we have recently cross-matched to the DFO catalogue as being BCX1063.

This tail-slapping behaviour (again associated with the animal "trumpetting") is so intriguing and may be some sort of posturing to the other humpbacks. There were at least 7 animals in the area with our also being able to identify "Slash" (BCY0177) and "Yogi" (first time sighted back this year).

We also enjoyed seeing Steller sea lions interacting (the sun causing the water to evaporate so quickly we could see mist coming off the animals) and observing Pacific harbour seals. The students could see that the seals were not able to climb up as high on the rocks as the sea lions as they cannot rotate their hind limbs. By contrast, they watched a Steller climb up a very steep grade to get right up the were the trees were on the island.

This afternoon we were treated to more humpback and sea lion activity, and Captain Jim noted that Pacific loons seem to be in the area in large numbers right now, which is great to see!  All in all, a great day

Next Available Tours:

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.