Canadian Pacific Humpback Whale Catalogue (CPHC)

Project coordinator: Ashley Keegan

Multi-organization effort to create a comprehensive BC-province wide humpback catalogue

We are collaborators in the Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration (CPHC).

The CPHC catalogues Humpback Whales off the coast of British Columbia. The centralized catalogue and database of individual Humpbacks enable understanding of the whales’ habitat use, behaviours, population size and structure, life histories, and the impacts of threats like vessel strike and entanglement.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) maintained a province-wide catalogue of Humpback Whales off Canada’s Pacific Coast up to 2010. Members of the CPHC were among those who contributed data to DFO and ensured cataloguing of Humpbacks continued beyond 2010. The CPHC has retained DFO’s alphanumeric system of assigning Humpback Whale catalogue names e.g. BCY0710.

The efforts of the CPHC have informed research beyond British Columbia, including the reassessment of North Pacific Humpbacks by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

Additional members of the Collaboration are the Marine Education and Research Society (coordinators of the CPHC), North Coast Cetacean Society, Pacific WildLife Foundation, North Coast Cetacean Research Initiative – Ocean Wise Conservation Association, Humpback Whales of the Salish Sea, and Whales of Clayoquot and Barkley. The efforts of the CPHC are supported by DFO.

The alpha-numeric system of cataloguing Humpback Whales was established by DFO and is retained by the CPHC. The system is generally based on how much white or black there is on the Humpback Whale's fluke.

  • BCX = mostly black (less than 20% white on the fluke)

  • BCY = intermediate (20 to 80% white on the fluke)

  • BCZ = mostly white (more than 80% white on the fluke)

  • BCG = photos not of high enough quality (G = grey)

  • BCC = fluke pigmentation indicates this whale is a young calf but the mother is unknown. In other cases when the calf’s mother is known, the system is to include the mother’s name in the catalogue designation e.g. BCZ0408 calf 2023 is a calf born in 2023 to BCZ0408. The BCC name is a temporary designation since fluke pigmentation can change significantly. When the calf is older, they will be assigned a BCX, Y, or Z name.

ashley@ketacoastalconservation.org