The humpback whale sightings continue! This spring has yielded just incredible wildlife sightings, everything from various species of birds, to crazy numbers of cetaceans. May 26th was no exception!
I feel that one of the highlights of the spring has been the return of the humpback whales to their summer feeding grounds here in the Salish Sea. In the North Pacific humpback whales were considered to be commercially extinct by the year 1968. That means that whalers headed out on expeditions to hunt these huge whales and there were just not enough of them to support a whaling industry. Historically, here in the Salish Sea, scientists believe that there were many humpbacks that frequented our waters. Because of our relatively calm and protected inlets, these whales were easy targets for whalers, and were quickly extirpated from the area in the early 1900s. Fast forward about 100 years to a time of frosted tips, baggy pants, and people who walked around with walkmans.... yes the early 2000s.... we started to see the comeback of humpbacks to the Salish Sea, lead by one whale in particular: Big Mama. It has taken about 15 years for us to consider humpbacks regular visitors to our inland sea around the San Juan Islands. In 1968 we believe that the humpback whale population was right around 2,400 individuals in the whole of the North Pacific. Today we believe their population stands at just over 26,000.
We had the opportunity to spend some time with Big Mama and her newest calf Poptart today as traveled south near Patos and Matia Islands in the Strait of Georgia and Boundary Pass. Whenever I get a chance to spend time with humpback I always take it as a marker of nature's resilience and ability to heal horrible traumas. Truly a pleasure to spend time with this lovely mom and her newest baby.
Lead Naturalist Sarah, M/V Sea Hawk, San Juan Outfitters
