Salish Sea’s first humpback whale calf of 2025 spotted off B.C. south coast

The first humpback whale calf of 2025 has arrived in the Salish Sea, according to a group of ecotourism professionals.

Spotted on May 21 by members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association northeast of Sidney Island in the Haro Strait, the four- to five-month-old calf was travelling alongside its mother Big Mama. Additional sightings were logged on May 22.

“We’re always eager to see who the first calf of the season will be, and we’re always anxious waiting for Big Mama’s return,” the association’s executive director, Erin Gless, said in a news release. “This year, we got to celebrate both happy occasions at once.”

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Dodging fishing gear, shipping traffic and killer whales, the mother and her calf have spent the past several months travelling from their breeding grounds to the B.C. coast, where they will feed on small fish and krill until migrating south for the winter.

“Humpback calves aren’t born in the Salish Sea. Mothers give birth over the winter in warmer waters off Hawaii, Mexico and Central America,” the PWWA said in the same news release. “Big Mama is part of the Hawaiian population.”

It’s a long, perilous journey, but one Big Mama has made many times.

“She was first seen off Victoria in 1997, and was one of the first humpbacks to return to the Salish Sea after the end of commercial whaling in 1966,” Gless said. “She’s been returning ever since, and now has at least eight calves, seven grandcalves and four great grandcalves. It’s very impressive.”

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Two of Big Mama’s previous kids – Divot and Moresby, born in 2003 and 2022, respectively – have also recently arrived in the Salish Sea for the season.

Many more humpbacks will return to B.C. waters in the coming weeks.

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