Breaching Humpbacks! - September 14th 2011

This morning we had to say a fond, but sad farewell to Hidden Cove Lodge, but vowed that we would return one day (and one day soon!).  However, before leaving Telegraph Cove we had one more whale watching trip, to hopefully see the Orcas again and other marine inhabitants, once again cruising in the area of Johnstone Strait.

In contrast to the sailing vessel we had been on two days prior the trip today would be onboard a larger motorised boat, holding in excess of 30 people. Although it held many more passengers the boat was a good size with plenty of viewing areas for all. 

The fine weather that we had on previous days had by now started to change rather rapidly and very heavy cloud was by now starting to build. It looked like rain was some time off, but at some point was going to be inevitable on our trip. Maybe not today, but soon. 

It was only around 30 minutes or so after leaving the dock at Telegraph Cove that we spotted our first whales, not Orcas but Humpbacks. Two large humpbacks moving along peacefully, occasionally coming up for air before signaling their long dives into the Strait with the show of their tail fin. 

As we were watching these whales we then noticed far ahead more spouts of water coming from blow holes, the captain signaled we would leave these Humpbacks as ahead were Orcas. In contrast to the full group of the A30’s we had seen two days prior there were just three here today, although they were still part of the same group. It was an older female and two younger members. They remained very illusive, spending most of the time under the water. 

As they cruised near to the shoreline ahead of us they attracted a group of Dall’s Porpoise. These creatures know that the Orcas were resident and thus no threat to them, unlike the more aggressive and predatory transient Orcas. The porpoises played around the Orcas, great fun for the porpoises but known to highly irritate the Orcas. Getting frustrated with the Porpoises the Orcas moved away quickly and must have dived deep to escape their antics as they then reappeared quite some way in the distance. 

As we watched the Orcas move away in the distance it was this moment that several of us on the boat noticed a tremendous splash, far far in the distance, and then again and again. It looked like the water was exploding! This could surely mean only one thing, a breaching whale! The Captain was soon on to this commotion so leaving the Orcas it was time to investigate what was going on in the distance.

As we neared the area, it was then we saw two Humpbacks Whales and the cause of all of the splashing in the distance. Cameras at the ready everyone on the boat hoped we would get a repeat performance, but this time closer!

As we hoped, the Humpbacks continued to breach as we approached to within a safe distance. It was incredibly hard to judge where and when they would breach. Again and again they breached, we were not even sure if it was the same whale breaching or both of them.

They rushed out of the water like torpedoes exploding from a submarine, the noise as they reentered the water was incredible as the water exploded with their huge mass reentering their aquatic home. The speed and velocity in which it happened was really quite something. Moving in close to the shore they spouted water from their blowholes, sounding like an elephant trumpeting with the mix of air and water channeling through at such high speed. By now it almost felt we were losing count of the number of breaches, it must surely have been at least three or four times by now. All on the boat all gasped at each breach, each time no less impressive than the last. This was something we had of course hoped to see but in reality never expected to see, but still we had not been quick enough to get shots of their full bodies out of the water!

By around breach number four/five we had started to get clued up as to where and when the next breach would happen, even though they changed their position considerably in between dives. Fortunately by now we started to get some shots of this incredible behaviour. Also giving us a chance to actually fully absorb their antics. Surely by now they would be getting exhausted! How on earth they managed to propel at least 20 tonnes (they were young/mid sized Humpbacks) of sheer mass out of the water with such power was just beyond comprehension. I (Sarah) had seen a Humpback breach once before in Australia recently but never really had the opportunity to take it in. The noise and the awe of such behaviour was starting to really sink in (excuse the pun!) 

In total they must have breached around seven/eight times, the show had to end at some point and soon enough it did. They both dived and then it all went quiet, reappearing some way off and returning to a calm state. What was causing them to breach with such frequency is a little unknown. Two competing adolescent males showing their strength perhaps? Not even the Marine Biologist on the boat was sure and had not seen something like this before. To say we felt totally privileged to have seen this is an understatement and even after more then 3000 whale watching trips our captain was also pretty ‘amped’! We are not sure who was more exhausted at this point, the Whales or us as the adrenaline pumped with excitement! 

Returning to shore we were all very ‘happy bunnies’. Ok, so we had not captured anything unique in terms of photography, we have all seen images of breaching whales before but to have seen this and to have this shot personally and to have in our own portfolio of images was great!. What an awesome way to end a fabulous three days in Telegraph Cove before we headed of for our next stop - Campbell River.