For my xxth birthday, my mother and sister gave me the experience of whale watching. If you have read my past blogs (which I would recommend doing… no bias here), you would know I L-O-V-E whale watching. So my family booked a whale watching tour for me with #VancouverWhaleWatchingTours, which, by the way, is in the City of Richmond, not Vancouver. (NOTE: They have a great whale ‘seeing’ guarantee.)

This is not the first whale watching tour I have taken from the Vancouver Whale Watching Tours (see my November 21, 2018 post). This time, my tour included being picked up by their tour bus from downtown Vancouver along with a delicious bag lunch. I got to be a tourist in my own city. Everybody should be a tourist in their hometown at least once.

I had a great time! We a saw a pod of 5 humpbacks just 30 minutes out in the Straight of Georgia. I made my report on their whale sighting app - my chance to help whale conservation - and it got me thinking. During my first whale watching tour out of Richmond, over a decade ago, it took us over 2 hours to see a whale outside the harbour of Victoria - two Orcas (NOTHING wrong with Orcas). These were the type of whales we expected to see. Seeing a humpback back then was very rare. Humpbacks were once common to the Straight of Georgia but were eradicated by whalers in late 1800's. For the next 100 years, the Straight was a Humpback-free zone. Then in 1997, a lone Humpback decided to check out the Straight. She must have liked what she saw because slowly, over the next two decades, Humpbacks started to be seen here again. (I guess the whale messaging system is not very fast). Today, the whale watching guarantee now can include Humpbacks AND Orcas. So all I want to say is, “Welcome home, Humpbacks! We missed you.”

Have you seen any Humpbacks in the Straight of Georgia? Let me know in the comments below.