A Whale of a day....

Day 6 Feb 2, 2011

The day was basically a non-plus day of puttering about as I was not feeling very well with the cold I have been harbouring since I left Winnipeg. However we did do one thing that is worth mentioning. We went on another Pacific Whale Foundation whale watch trip. We had about 100 people on board and lots of room for everyone. We cruised out of the harbour at about 10:30 and we soon spotted whales breaching and playing all around us. Our team were very excited as the watching has been very good recently. Our first encounter was with a “logging male” who looked like he was a sleep on the surface. We moved on from him and found a calf (picture above) who was playing on the surface and learning what he could do with his body. He finned us, rolled, breached several times and showed us his tail over and over again. Mum was nearby and occasionally showed herself at the surface. That lasted for about 20 minutes and we got some neat shots.

We then moved on again and came across two pods who were feuding over a female and they were all pretty large humpbacks vying for dominance. Apparently they push pretty hard but they do not fight to the death. They approached us and swam under the boat and actually surfaced right beside the boat several times. We could see the flukes under the water as they are white and reflect the light quite well. We stayed with them for about 35 minutes and we managed to get some clear pictures of them playing and being aggressive towards each other. While being aggressive they demonstrate behaviour that is atypical of their usual behaviour. They bring their heads out of the water to show their size and they use the barnacles on their head as weapons against their targets. They demonstrate behaviour to prove they are big and strong which of course impresses the females who is watching all of this. We were very fortunate to watch such displays. The team were also impressed as they do not see such behaviour very often.

So our watch was very successful and we returned to the harbour for a light lunch and some shipping before returning to the condo for an afternoon nap. A Nap.... what is with that!