Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Friday, May 9th | 2:00 PM
Today we had a special encounter with Humpback Whale BCX1057, also known as Divot. Divot is a 22-year-old female North Pacific Humpback from the Maui breeding population. Divot is the first (presumed) calf of the legendary BCY0324 “Big Mama.” Big Mama has been observed in the Salish Sea for the past 20 years. Big Mama was one of the first humpbacks that reclaimed this region as viable for migration and feeding post whaling era. Commercial Whaling resulted in the near decimation of many North Pacific Humpback populations. As population numbers started to slowly rebound, so did sightings in the Salish Sea. In 2023, 1,835 unique humpbacks were documented in Canadian Pacific waters! A huge increase from seeing just a handful in the 1990s and early 2000s.
We started our tour by taking a left out of Friday Harbor and heading north in San Juan Channel. Our plan was to aim for Turn Point Lighthouse, located on the northwest side of Stuart Island. As we approached Turn Point Lighthouse, we could see whale watching vessels in the distance. The second we started to slow down near the scenic lighthouse, we started seeing splashing in the distance. As we slowly motored closer to the splashing, I quickly realized that we were witnessing a humpback whale flick-feeding! Flick feeding is when a whale throws its tail fluke through a school of bait fish or krill, stunning its prey at the surface. Once the prey becomes immobile, the whale lunges with its mouth open to slurp them all up. “Divot” has been known to use the flick-feeding technique, but I've never seen this behavior in action before, so I was stoked! We stayed with Divot for several breath cycles before continuing on to find more wildlife. We headed back to Turn Point Lighthouse, to get a proper look at the structure since we were previously interrupted by a surface active humpback! We then cruised over to White Rock to look at A TON of hauled out harbor seals. The last thing on our agenda was to visit Green Point on Spieden Island. Green Point is a great place to look for Steller’s Sea Lions. We viewed a great group of Steller’s before making our way back to Friday Harbor. San Juan Safaris is so excited to welcome these beautiful baleen whales back to the Salish Sea!