Sarah | 10/17/2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 12:00pm
Captain Brian and I had a lovely day out on the water with a wonderful group of guests. We had the pleasure of sharing a lovely day and some great wildlife in the Salish Sea.
The highlight of our day was definitely an encounter with a humpback whale on Constance Bank, just south of Victoria. Humpback whales are the fourth or fifth largest species of whale in the world, depending on whether you measure whales by length or by weight. These massive whales are 45 feet long on average here in the North Pacific basin, and can weigh a ton of weight per foot of length. It is always a pleasure to see humpback whales in this area because they are a recent re-addition back into the inland sea’s ecosystem. These whales were extirpated from the area by the 1960’s or 1970’s, leaving a wide-open niche in the ecosystem. It took until the early 2000’s to see any recolonization from this resilient species. Since that time we’ve seen remarkable population growth here in the Salish Sea, and they have become one of our most commonly seen species in autumn.