Five ḰENES (Humpback Whales) in the Strait of Georgia

July 28, 2026

Photo by: Lauren Laturnus (SFU)

On July 28 we got reports of whales near active pass and headed past the Belle Chain Islets for compliance monitoring of the Rockfish Conservation Area (RCA) before continuing north to the Mayne RCA and beyond. We approached the whales with whale watching vessels and came upon killer whales and humpback whales. The species split up and we remained with the humpbacks. We flew our whale flag to alert a pleasure craft vessel of the Humpbacks’ presence. The whales were resting on the surface, potentially the aftermath of an interaction with the killer whales. We identified these two humpbacks as BCX1702 Uluka and BCZ0410 Anvil. After sticking with the humpbacks for a while to obtain identification photos and monitor marine mammal compliance, we returned towards
TEḴTEḴSEN (East Point Saturna Island). En route, we encountered a vessel fishing in the Mayne RCA and stopped them to inform them of closure areas in DFO Management Area 18. After interacting with the fishing vessel, we continued towards TEḴTEḴSEN when we came across three more humpbacks! two of these whales were travelling together near Tumbo Island, towards Boundary Passage, and a third was a little further away in the Strait of Georgia. We identified one of the pair as BCZ0414 Zephyr and the other two are not yet identified. Part of our team continued to watch these whales from shore on Saturna Island as the rest of us returned to our marina for the evening.

All photos are taken with a 200-600 zoom lens.