Humpback Whales

 Telegraph Cove is most famous for its Orcas, but truth be told I was more excited about the potential for Humpback Whales, having seen Orcas several times before. We had seen Humpbacks once at Ucluelet, but not very closely or carrying out very interesting behaviour. In our weekend out we saw Humpbacks every day split between 8 or more distinct individuals. The most common encounter is a simple breath, often accompanied by a fluke like the one below. This one passed right under our boat seconds after this dive.

 We also saw a few instances of lunge feeding, which occurs when the whale finds a sizeable ball of bait fish or something similar and charges at it with its mouth gaping in an effort to swallow as much as it can. This is pretty incredible and happens very fast for an animal of that size. In one instance we are still unsure if the whale in question accidentally swallowed a gull that had been attracted by the fish.

 Rounding out our humpback behaviour checklist, this particular animal was very active early in the morning and breached perhaps a dozen times with acrobatics varying from a full 360 degree turn in the air to a series of impressive leaps. We were both spoiled for camera opportunities here and got lots of pictures and video to round out our collection. The same animal was fin slapping the water afterwards and we could hear other splashes in the distant fog, so a few individuals could have been communicating or simply having fun.

All in all it was a spectacular series of sightings with one of the most impressive and acrobatic marine mammals we have ever had the pleasure to see.