August 13, 2013

As we were heading down “The Ditch” (Granville Channel, British Columbia) today I was a little melancholy as Alaska was behind us and we were now leaving the “bigness” of Northern British Columbia and the prolific whales I have so loved. Just as we were about out of “The Ditch” I spotted a humpback who lifted her fluke up three times.  What a nice “goodbye”.

 Twenty minutes later we had Dall porpoises give us a quick visit as they played in and out of our bow wake for about a mile. As I looked back from the stern of the boat I felt so thankful for this one last visit from these wonderful creatures, and even under the cloudy skies this is such a beautiful place.

Leaving The Ditch

Two hours later as we were entering Wight Sound into Whale Channel we saw a mother humpback with her calf moving gracefully through the water together.  They were cruising side by side ever so slowly and silently.

Mom and her baby

All of a sudden the whales start breaching!  Then another whale joins in and he starts breaching.  OMG! Both big whales are breaching alternately, each one about eight times!   We are absolutely stunned.  

Breaching Mom. Notice there are almost no markings on her fins

Breaching whale #2. Lots of markings on his fins.

What a show-off. He is having so much fun!

Then they start finn slapping and it is SO loud.  It sounds like gun shots going off. I’m sure it can be heard for miles.  After 15 minutes of finn slapping (no exaggeration as I took 400 pictures and can see the time and sequence on my camera) they start making a very different noise after “blowing”. It is a sound I can only describe as singing.  It is different from anything else we have ever heard.  We wonder if they are communicating with one another socially or if this is part of their communication around feeding.  Whatever it is it is absolutely beautiful!  

Whale #2 finn slapping (lots of markings on his fins)

Mom (almost no markings
on fins) fin slapping.

Next they start tail lobbing for about 5 minutes, for heaven’s sake!  What an unbelievable experience!  Then suddenly it is quiet and Mom and her baby surface again side by side very near our boat, lift their flukes and slowly and gracefully disappear.  It has been a full hour “show” and we cannot believe we have received such a gift.  I feel exhausted, emotional, and close to tears.  It is unbelievable to me that we have witnessed this.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  WOW.

Mom and baby come close to the boat to say goodbye