Day 25 - West Side of Vancouver Island Flotilla - Bamfield to Effingham Bay (and a whale rescue!)

Whale rescue © Laura Domela

This morning, en route from Bamfield to Effingham Bay, Airship and Dog Star had just entered Imperial Channel near Diana Island, when Dog Star radioed to tell us (on Airship) there were whales off their port side. We kept an eye out, and eventually spotted at a couple of humpbacks a half mile or so west of our course.

One of the whales looked like it was just floating on the surface, which seemed odd, and after a few minutes it hadn't moved much at all. We noticed an orange buoy (from a prawn or crab trap) very close to the whale. Fearing the whale might caught in the trap, we decided to head that way to get a closer look.

We looked with binoculars and confirmed (unfortunately) that the orange buoy was moving along with the smaller of the two whales, a humpback calf. The larger whale (presumably the calf's mother) was circling close by.

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