Category: Humpback Whales

August 2019 #1 Burping Whales & Dragging Anchors!

Quite the stormy night in Gorge Harbour! A stiff SE gale blew up and one of the anchored cruisers dragged and picked up another cruisers anchor yanking 250ft of heavy chain with anchor attached all around the harbour at 3am. Inches away from smashing into other boats at anchor – people out on deck yelling and dropping fenders over the sides of their boats to protect them. It was mayhem. Not much sleep for anybody.

Finally the wind calms and we run the gauntlet of moored boats out of the harbour. Terry is listening to the VHF radio for any news of whales.”15 Humpbacks out here off the scallop farm” reports one of the whale watching boat captains. We spot 2 whales traveling south as we exit Gorge Harbour. “I don’t see any whale watching boats” Terry says “Oh, now I see them – close to the shore of Quadra. I’m seeing backs and blows – one, two, three, four whales over there. Five more further over. Three close to the spit”

It’s a Wealth of Whales! There are 3 groups all feeding in the same area. They circle around all the boats that have come over to admire them. Four pass very close to Blue P. Seas are calm but boat wake makes video next to impossible. Jude drops the hydrophone to record any communications that might be happening between the groups of whales. There doesn’t seem to be any  vocalizing going on  between the groups – at least anything audible to human ears. However the whales that are closest to us are feeding. Jude hears a burp/burble – several burps – hilarious! We float with this group for a couple of hours in the heat of midday and hear thunder to the west of us rolling across Campbell River.

July 2019 #3 They just keep jumping

NOTE TO READERS: We have chosen to use the word “herm” as a pronoun for any non-human animal whose gender is unknown to us.

A cloudy morning in a bay on Cortes. Two aluminum work boats buzz in at 9am. The skippers jump ship on a tiny islet to pick clams on the sandy beach at low tide.

We are charging batteries and studying the GH5 camcorder manual yet again so we get a late start. No backs or blows are visible in the immediate area as we motor out of the bay. But we hear reports of some lively humpbacks between Marina Island and Francisco Point so we head south over calm seas.

An hour later Terry calls from the bow “Blows! about 1/2 km ahead”. Three , maybe four whales are resting peacefully on the water so we slow down and ease closer. A seine boat is approaching the whales from the SW. He’s not slowing down. Has he seen the whales? “Try and get him on channel 16” Terry shouts “No, it’s OK. He’s on a parallel course. He won’t run over them them.” The seine boat doesn’t hit them but his heavy wake breaks over the sleeping whales. One large whale arches herm’s back and slams the water with herm’s tail. Pissed off? Maybe, but it’s over immediately. Back to sleep now.

Whales and dolphins sleep with one hemisphere of their brains at a time. The other hemisphere stays awake. They have to stay awake because, unlike humans, they are conscious breathers.  In fact researchers learned the hard way that if you tranquilize a whale or dolphin they will drown. Cetaceans have to be awake to breathe. Wakefulness of half their brain may also allow them to respond instantly to changes in the ocean environment such as the arrival of predators, or breaking waves. It is mind bending to imagine the consciousness of a being who lives simultaneously in the dreamtime and wakefulness. Wouldn’t we love to know!

The whales float and we float with them. We listen to the music of their breathing and Jude plays some didjeridoo. “I think there’s a baby with them” Terry whispers.  “Listen… a little “Poof” compared to Mom’s “PITCHOOOO”  And the dorsal fin is close to the blowholes on the little one…. Yup. Mom and calf – you got your wish Jude”

We send our sighting to the WOWS group line and soon see other boats coming to join us. The downside of this is that lots of boats, respectful though they are of the whales’ space, create lots of wake. Bobbing and rocking from boat wake makes it difficult to shoot video that doesn’t cause vertigo in the viewer. It’s especially debilitating when the whales are far from the ship so telephoto lenses must be employed.

“I think they’re waking up now” Terry observes. Unexpectedly one of the whales breaches. And they’re off! – fins slapping the surface water and lots of splashing activity. Jude drops the hydrophone and listens to hear if they are talking to each other. But all the boats are moving with the whales so wake and engine noise drown out every other sound. A light breeze springs up. It keeps shifting direction, forcing Jude to stay on the helm so we don’t run into any whales or other boats. It’s necessary to abandon the audio recording.

A few herring leap near our bow. The whales must have woken up to a school of passing herring and are taking advantage of the buffet lunch. When it seems they’ve gone under to rest for a while Jude decides to go for a brief swim while Terry grabs some lunch. On her way to get a towel Jude glances ahead “A whale – breaching” Jude cries. By now the whales are 1/2 km away. All thoughts of swimming and lunch are quickly abandoned as Terry scrambles for a camera and Jude starts the engine. It does feel a bit like a chase when the whales are active. All the boats circle around and move with them. But the whales don’t seem to mind. They continue fin slapping, tail lobbing and breaching – probably fishing on a herring school. In spite of the constant wake and movement of other boats in the water Terry manages to film some of the action. And they just keep jumping!

After an hour of hyper-activity the whales enjoy another rest so we don’t follow them. Time for lunch and a swim. But 20 minutes later they are breaching again! What an active bunch! Terry takes some still photos of the whales’ flukes for ID purposes. Later we learn who they are.

July 2019 #2 Whales in Whale Passage

When you make a dream come true and it’s everything you wished for it’s time for celebration and giving thanks to everyone and everything that made it possible. To be in this beautiful place on this little sailboat with its “cute” little old engine with whales visible in every direction – Jude and Terry are in humpback heaven! Sutil Channel is the primo place to be for Humpback Whales.

We have been anchoring or mooring Blue Parrot on Read Island where we’ve enjoyed meeting the locals – characters all. Living off-grid with only water access and no stores makes building your own home and bringing in supplies a challenge. Driving the kids across the Island to school on logging roads in Winter snow is reserved for the truly committed year round residents.

We haul our inflatable dinghy up on the government dock to repair a leak in the port pontoon. Two coats of Marine goop should do it. A 60-something character named John who’s been everywhere on the west coast from Alaska to Antarctica regales us with tales of tattered sails torn in the fresh winds of Johnstone Strait and mammal eating Transient orcas diving under porpoise pods and emerging with tender babies to gulp down for lunch. They aren’t called “killer whales” for no reason!

The winds really rip across Read Island into Evans Bay. These are the outflow winds sucked out of the deep waters and towering peaks in Bute Channel. We are fooled by the brisk breeze in the Bay but it weakens to a paltry puff out in Sutil Channel.  We turn north into Whale Passage where a few boats are fishing – always a good sign when looking for whales. “There they are!” Terry points to 3 humpbacks feeding along the shore of a Penn island. They are shallow diving. “Look! The middle one is fin slapping. Maybe herm is trying to shock the fish”  We are motoring through the passage in their general direction  “Oh, a breach!” The lead whale has breached, maybe to check out the scene visually. Maybe to let us know the 3 whales are there. Herm breaches again as the 3 swim around the point of the island. Is herm showing us their trajectory since we are behind them – we are 300m back. They round the point traveling faster away from us.

Time for a swim. It’s HOT in the relentless summer sun. Blue Parrot is open to the weather. We don’t have a bimini for shade or a dodger for rain or any other kind of protection. Jude jumps off the bubble boat for a refreshing dip – with clothes still on – a strategy that ensures constant cooling as the clothes dry on her skin. She is enjoying the very cold water as recreational boats pass with people sitting in the shade of biminis. Commercial whale watching zodiacs zip along at 25 knots filled with folks in survival suits. Jude splashes around for a good 10 minutes wondering whether the whales will get interested in a human splashing around in the water. But they don’t. sigh……

October 2018 – Fog

Here we are floating around in Sutil Channel. We finally got here after after months of dreaming about this place as reports streamed in of dozens of humpback whales gathering to frolic and feed. Well – we’re here after a day of motoring – but where are the whales? We did notice one humpback blow off Francisco Point when we came around Marina Island. Then Terry sighted 2 blows at the SW tip of Read Island but nobody has come close or even lingered to feed in any of their reported favourite sites. So much for Humpback Heaven!

We circle the Subtle Islands. A flotilla of stellar sea lions is hauled out on the NW side. A couple of baby seals check us out. No whales. We have permission to tie up to another private buoy in one of the bays, courtesy of one of Martha’s friends. The folks on Cortes Island love the whales and have been very generous in helping us out with places for our ship to moor.

Tonight Terry and I lie awake meditating and mentally sending invitations to the whales to come and meet us if they aren’t too busy. The fog rolls in during the morning. We are floating around Hill Island. I am working below as Terry watches a fog bank roll up the channel. “Try phoning Martha” Terry calls down to me. “Ask her whether they’ve got fog over that side of the Island.”  I phone Martha. “She says it was clear this morning but the fog came in thick. It’s supposed to clear near noon but local knowledge says maybe late afternoon or evening”  Oh Joy! The fog is steadily moving toward us so we head back to our mooring buoy to wait it out.

And that’s the saga of Sutil Channel; floating around in the sun – monitoring the fog banks – waiting  for whales – and spotting them – in the distance. Meanwhile, we have some  fun observing raucous arguments between eagle mates. We watch a loon try to swallow a big-headed sculpin. We ponder on why the shore pines in the Bay are dying like the red cedars are dying in Trevenen Bay. But no whales. After a few days we decide to head back to the other side of Cortes. 2 humpbacks appear about 1 knot ahead of Blue Parrot to lead the way.

 

October 2018 – Breach!

After the amazing lounge feeding we had witnessed we are stoked for more of the same. Another bright calm day dawns and as we motor towards Mittlenach Island we hear a blow off our port bow.  We motor closer then stop to float- a little more than 100m away.  Whale doesn’t move so we are pretty sure that s/he knows we are here when we turn off the engine to float in parallel. We float there quietly for a few minutes.

All of a sudden whale’s tail drops, snout emerges, back arches. S/he breaches, then flips over and breaches again! “Do you think we got too close?” I worry “I don’t know. Let’s see if whale takes off” Terry responds. But whale continues to hang out near us, feeding in the area. I bring out my didjeridoo and begin playing as s/he feeds. After a few minutes whale swims around Blue Parrot in a semi-circle about 100m distance. S/he continues on to Twin Islands then circles around and swims by us again before heading South.

That’s herm breaching in the background of the Welcoming Whales blogs.

October 2018 – Humpbacks “Lounge” Feeding

After 2 weeks of administration, video editing, catching up on blogs and sending out a Newsletter we finally get back on the water. It is calm and sunny after a particularly wet September. We anchor in one of our favourite places and check for any reports of humpbacks in the area. “Someone saw a humpback breaching off Rebecca Spit” Terry reports “I’ll take that as a sign to go north” I reply.

We make an early start on a perfect day for video – sunny, clear and calm.  No wind yet so we are motoring towards Mitlenach Island when we spot them. “Look, 2 humpbacks feeding in the shadows” Terry, the whale spotter supreme, is pointing to the shore of Twin Islands. As we observe the whales moving SW we catch sight of another blow, then 2 more blows moving North – 5 humpback whales! We kill the engine to float around and better observe what everyone is doing. A whale watching boat without passengers motors in. The skipper sees the whales and slows down. He follows them at a respectful distance. When 2 whales circle back we decide to stay where we are.

I call the captain of the Eagle Eye Adventures inflatable on VHF radio and introduce Terry and I and the Welcoming Whales project. Reuben, the young captain, is heading to Lund today. We share stories and information we’ve observed about the cetaceans in our area. I have often wondered whether whale watching (and other) boats would interfere with transient Biggs orcas while they are hunting. But Reuben tells us “Transients sometimes make a kill – usually a seal – right beside my boat. Sometimes a seal will even try to hide underneath my boat” It seems from Ruben’s report and from others I’ve heard since that when Biggs orcas are in full pursuit of their prey, boats don’t bother them.

I ask Reuben if he will take us closer to where the 2 whales are shallow feeding at the surface. “Sure” he says. We hop into his inflatable with our cameras. The inflatable skims smoothly and quietly to about 200m from the whales. Ruben has a range finder to indicate how far away his boat is from any marine mammal. It is standard whale watching gear. He has never seen this kind of lunge feeding. “This is incredible! They’re just lying on their sides with their mouths open!” I exclaim “They’re hoovering herring!”  “They’re not LUNGE feeding they’re LOUNGE feeding Terry quips. Then he is intent on capturing video of the phenomenon. We float quietly for about 15 minutes until Ruben says he has to go.

“That was amazing!” Terry and I are both thrilled. It is 6pm and we should be getting back to the anchorage but we don’t want to leave. Suddenly the surface of the sea begins roiling and rippling. Silver flashes underwater and leaps into the air  – herring! They’re jumping everywhere! But listen! The sound of heavy rain showers in our ears. The skin of the water shimmers. Tiny shrimp pop up like popcorn all around the ship. Gulls are skimming the water and grabbing shrimp from the surface. And here come the whales! A couple of sea lions are feeding with the humpbacks. They look sinuously intertwined.  It’s a free-for-all on herring and krill.

In the midst of all this 2 women in kayaks paddle out to the Parrot ship. “Are they minke whales?” asks one “What are they doing?” “What are they eating?” “Are people allowed to fish herring?” Terry and I answer the rapid fired questions as fast as we can all the while filming the feeding action.

Martha and Jean paddle closer to the whales and we hold our breaths “Don’t get too close” we call to them. “We won’t” they answer. But the whales are heading their way. They begin back paddling furiously – away from the whales and back to Blue Parrot. “Whew!”  When their excitement abates we ask if there is a good place to anchor near here as it is past sunset. Martha invites us to tie up to her mooring buoy about 100m towards shore from the Parrot ship.  Her generous offer means that we don’t have to leave the scene at all!

Two excited women paddle back to shore as we resume filming. The whales are still feeding in the purplepeach painted sea-sky as we anchor for the night.

September 2018 – Puffer Pigs

Well, it wasn’t a good month for hanging out with humpbacks but we did encounter more delightful harbour porpoises, affectionately named “puffer pigs” than we’ve ever seen before. We were anchored in one of our favourite calm weather spots close to ‘Red Pepper’. The sloop is adorned with a 200Watt solar panel to power her electric motor. Ken and Pat, her crew,  are retired and not in a hurry to get anywhere in particular.  When they aren’t sailing their 35ft red-hulled Erickson sailboat they can motor all day at 3 knots and fully recharge their batteries at the same time. We make a wish that electric motors will soon become affordable for your average low income sailor.

In the morning Terry saw a couple of blows further south so we headed that way. The sky was blue, the mountain vistas spectacular – but no whales appeared – so we floated on a silk smooth sunlit sea for hours. As sunset coloured the sky we followed leaping herring into Blubber Bay on Texada Island, hopeful that some humpbacks would discover the herring too. After anchoring we settled in for a peaceful night.

The moon is bright and the sea still calm when we get up to check the anchor line at 2am. “It’s a perfect night to drop the hydrophone” Jude enthuses. Before I can move: Pchooo! “Was that a blow?” Pchooo! “Terry, there’s a whale out there.”  “Only one?” “Yes, s/he must have found those herring.” The whale is not really close so I drop the hydrophone to listen underwater. What a cacophony! We’re close to shore and the hydrophone hangs close to bottom where  shrimp crackle, barnacles creak, fish grunt, seals burp and pilings rub and groan. It surely is noisy in the intertidal zone. I can’t identify half of these intriguing sounds. They are so loud that I can’t hear any whale noises if there are any. We listen to the whale breathing above the water just outside the bay. But soon a diesel engine barrels into the bay drowning out all other sound above and under the water. Oh well. We plan to get up early to check whether our whale is still hanging around.

And there s/he is the next morning – intently shallow feeding just outside the bay. We float around watching herm for a while. As we float a motorboat zooms towards us headed right for the area where whale is feeding. I call on the VHF radio to let them know there is a whale in the area and they slow down.

One of our friendly Powell River whale spotters with a scope on her deck calls us to let us know that there are orcas in Blubber Bay. We have been so engaged with our humpback friend that we didn’t notice them but now we see 6 orcas racing out of the bay. They are beauties – one male with a very long dorsal fin. I struggle to get the hydrophone back in the water but don’t hear any communications. Maybe they are in stealth mode – mammal eaters hunting seals or sea lions. We watch them disappear into the distance and notice the incoming clouds. “Let’s stay ahead of the rain” I suggest “Do you see the Grant’s Reef buoy?” “Depth is 40 ft, 35, 23, 18” Terry reads the sounder as we approach the shallow reefs. They must be full of fish because a carpet of loons, murres, grebes and gulls float over them. 3 humpback whales troll the deeper water nearby. And here are a dozen harbour porpoises popping up for a puff of breath and submerging to feed together. What a sight! We’ve never seen more than 2 or 3 together so this is a treat.

Rain clouds are catching up to us as another sailboat motors across our bow towards the shallow passage between Savary and Hernando Islands. I call him on the radio and ask if we can follow him through. “Sure” he says. So we do – cruising through the shoals and rocks as our 10ft shallow alarm sounds more than once.

Good thing we’re making passage on a 9ft tide.

2018 Sea of Whales

2018 SEA of WHALES – INTRO

This year was finally the year we’d been working towards. After years of setbacks, injuries etc. we finally got to meet and hang out with Grey whales in Baja, Mexico and Humpback whales in the Salish Sea. They were very different experiences but the following are a couple of stories with observations about human interactions with our large aquatic relations.

Eye to I

Terry (the Amphibiographer) and I were off of Powell River in our 27ft sailboat. There was no wind so we were motoring back towards the harbour at about 4 knots. Suddenly we saw what looked to be the butt end of a large deadhead floating in the water about 100m ahead. Hitting one of these can spell disaster for a boat and I was on the tiller.

“Do you think it moved?” I asked Terry who was at the

bow peering through binoculars to get a better look.

“It’s an elephant seal!” he exclaimed, “See the nose?”

“An elephant seal?” As the head turned I saw that unmistakable trunk-like shnozz come into view. I slowed down instantly and angled sharply to port (left). But our friend didn’t seem to be too fussed. After surveying the view he slowly submerged and disappeared.

We were past him by this time so we looked back just in time to see a humpback whale breach about 300m behind us. I executed a 180 degree turn hoping we would get to witness some playful exuberant humpback acrobatics. Whale breached a few more times but stopped when we were within 150 metres. I slipped the motor into neutral so Whale would know exactly where our boat was and Terry swung below to retrieve the video camera. Then we waited. And waited.

About 10 minutes later “PCHOOOOO!” A blow about 50m from our boat! An arc of dark whaleback surfaced and began to circle around us. I killed the motor since obviously Whale knew we were there. Was Whale curious? I decided to try to communicate with Whale. The closest I can get to mimicking whale language is to play my didjeridoo. My partner can synthesize a mean didjeridoo with his resonant baritone voice. So the two of us began a duet, a whale serenade.

Whale didn’t talk back to us – or maybe Whale did but we couldn’t hear it above the water. But Whale did move closer to the boat – still circling slowly. We drifted together like this for a while – no pyrotechnics, just meditative mellow breathing, didjeridooing and hanging out together. It was magical!

Then Whale took a breath and submerged into a sleek shallow dive from 25m behind our boat, under the length of it to emerge about 7m off the bow! Since Whale was one and a half times the length of our boat this took a few seconds. We were so surprised we jumped, clattered and banged our recording gear as we rushed to video our friend, who then leisurely swam off leaving us breathless.

I have since learned that whales avoid banging and thumping coming from the hull of a boat so that might have chased our friend away. I have also learned, from time spent among the grey whales in Baja, Mexico, that if whales want to interact with you, they will come to you. There is never any need to chase them. A boat that is floating in the water with enthusiastic people onboard can be a source of entertainment for our large friends. It can be a toy to play with, an ecstatic audience for athletic performances, willing volunteers for their teasing tricks like surprise blow hole showers, and even useful for a good back scratch.

The whales who came to visit us in our little boats had complete control of the interactions. From as young as 6 weeks their physical skill and coordination in the water was amazing. They teased us, made us squeal with delight and only stayed with us as long as they wanted. See ‘Baja Grey Whales’ Blog

When a whale rolls on her/his side to make eye contact with you – conscious being to conscious being – you know you have met a relation.

2018-August – Humpback Whales Visit Us

My Mom was fascinated by the stories Terry and I told her about whales. She loved to hear about their curiousity and intellegence; how the grey whales enjoyed teasing the tourists in Baja and how the humpbacks here seemed be attracted to the sounds of the didjeridoo. Mom, Chayashi, died in May of this year from dementia. But even in advanced stages of dementia there were lucid moments during which hearing about whales would put a smile on her face. With all of the Mom care this year and the ongoing tasks that need to be done after a loved one dies we didn’t get out on the water until August.

We made the most of our abbreviated time out in SV Blue Parrot. Our complicated methodology was to sail or motor to the general area where we’d seen humpbacks feeding or traveling and hang around waiting for whales. Whenever we shut off the engine I would drop my hydrophone (underwater microphone) over the side of Blue Parrot to listen to the sounds underwater through headphones. Sound travels 5 times faster in water than in air so I could hear the bugle-like inbreath of distant humpbacks through my hydrophone before the sound traveled to me above the water. Very cool.

This video shows what happened when 2 curious Humpbacks whales decided to visit us twice in the same afternoon. We were drifting with our engine off at least 200 metres away from them while they were feeding. It was their clear choice to visit us.


The Amphibiographer’s Secrets to Enjoying Awesome Whale Encounters: It’s vital to respect these wondrous beings, not to chase, annoy, or disturb them while they are feeding or sleeping at the surface. Slow down in known whale feeding areas and be aware so you don’t run over one. If you see a blow slow down, there may be more around. If they approach you, stop moving, shut off your engine and enjoy the encounter until they leave you.

Whales have an enormous hearing capacity which is very useful over their huge migration range to stay in contact with each other. In their northern or southern feeding grounds they travel through water that is full of plankton and very murky. They depend on sound to communicate and to find their way underwater.

Humans hear sound frequencies from 20Herz to 20,000Herz. But long distance whale communications can be lower than 10Herz and travel thousands of kilometers. When orca, dolphins or porpoises are echolocating they produce a barrage of very loud staccato blips or clicks at frequencies higher than 100,000herz . Some research suggests that baleen whales like humpbacks may echolocate using low frequency sonar but they do not have the very high frequency capability of porpoises or dolphins or even the toothed whales. There doesn’t seem to be definitive research that nails down the range of frequencies humpback whales can hear. Happily we humans can thrill to their intricate songs because Humpbacks sing predominantly in the hearing range of humans.

Here is a fascinating and playful introduction to hearing ranges in familiar animals.

https://www.myihp.co.uk/animal-hearing-ranges/

I would love to know whether the humpbacks that Terry and I were serenading in this video sang back to us underwater. I will need a spectrograph that maps audio frequencies to interface with my hydrophone in order to discover whether they are vocalizing outside our human audible range. Stay tuned to find out!

2018-August – Whales Listen to Didgeridoo

Playing music for whales isn’t a new concept. It probably goes back as far as the first humans and whales. Musicians and interspecies communicators like Jim Nollman were playing music for whales and recording it in the 1970s. The songs of the humpback whales are legend all over the world. Research has shown that humpbacks are especially attracted to sounds in the 400hz – 700hz range. This is medium – high range for a human soprano voice. “That’s doable” we surmised. So we decided to try playing a little whale music ourselves. Jude brought her didgeridoo onboard(actually it’s a PVC pipe with a beeswax mouthpiece), and Terry planned to experiment with chanting/singing .

Flashing white pectoral fins and splashing tails in the distance attracted our attention so we swung off our course towards the two humpbacks making a fuss. They dove while we were a couple of hundred metres away then popped up near us and a couple of other boats. It was an opportunity too good to miss. We started making some sounds to see what the whales would do. It was all ‘play the moment’, experimental, on the fly, while videoing and controlling the sailboat at the same time, so please forgive any weird sounds and unprofessional performance. Terry makes no pretence to being a musician; he was just trying to keep the whales interested enough to stay with us a while. And they did stay for almost 5 minutes. It seems our music put them to sleep! Or at least they appeared to be resting and listening. What do you think?

(Sorry for the wobbly video, using telephoto on a rolling boat in even little waves makes for unsteady footage).

Near Harwood Island, Tla’amin Territory, Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. August, 2018