Humpback Whale Catalogue: The Southern Salish Sea
Project Coordinators: Val Watson & Cheyenne Brewster
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Documenting the return of humpback whales to their historic feeding waters in BC
Cataloguing individual whales in our immediate region helps us understand small-scale changes in the population over time, and serves a useful resource for informing future policy in the Salish Sea.
Each humpback whale’s tail (fluke) markings are unique. Collecting photographs that document these unique markings allows us to individually identify each animal.
Keta researcher Ashley Keegan getting ready to get some fluke photos. Photo by Jilann Lechner Campbell
In 2014, Keta began opportunistically collecting photographs of humpback whale flukes we encountered. Thanks to many hours of field work on the water, and many contributors, these photos have grown into a catalogue!
In spring of 2023, we released our latest edition of the “Keta Humpback Whale Catalogue: The Salish Sea”, an identification catalogue documenting the different whales encountered in the Salish Sea over the past nine years. There are over 170 individuals included in the catalogue, and we expect that number to grow as we continue documenting the return of these individuals to the Salish Sea.
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