Famous humpback returns to B.C. waters alongside new calf

A beloved humpback whale named ‘Big Mama’ has returned to the Salish Sea with a new whale calf, according to whale watching experts.

“We’re all super excited,” says Five Star Whale Watching manager and naturalist, Meaghan McKechnie.

The whale watching company based in Victoria, B.C., spotted the mammal on Wednesday, May 21 in the Haro Strait – off the coast of the Saanich Peninsula near Sidney Island.

“Big Mama is one of our favourites around here. She’s the main reason we have humpbacks in this area,” says McKechnie.

 “She was first spotted here in 1997, three decades after the end of commercial whale hunting. She is the matriarch of pretty much all of the [humpback] whales that we have in this area.”

The Pacific Whale Watch Association has also confirmed sightings – and says the newcomer is Big Mama’s eighth known calf.

PWWA says the calf is likely between four and five months old, and has stayed close to it’s mom throughout the encounters. The mother humpback also has seven grandcalves and four great grandcalves.

“Big Mama is a perfect example of how important a single whale can be to a population,” says PWWA’s executive director, Erin Gless, in a news release.

PWWA says humpbacks give birth over the winter in warmer waters – and travel north to feed in the Salish Sea through fall before migrating back south for winter.