The whale affectionately known as Big Mama and credited for helping the great “humpback comeback” of the species in the Salish Sea has returned to local waters with another new calf.
Big Mama — officially dubbed BCY0324 — was spotted with her latest calf in Haro Strait on the Canada-U.S. border northeast of Sidney Island on Wednesday, followed by several more sightings on Thursday.
The calf, likely about four months old, stayed close to mom throughout the encounters.
It is Big Mama’s eighth known calf in three decades.
“Big Mama is a perfect example of how important a single whale can be to a population,” said Erin Gless, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association.
Big Mama first seen near Race Rocks in 1997 and was one of the first humpbacks to return to the Salish Sea after the end of commercial whaling in 1966.
She’s been spotted every year since and over the years has brought her calves to the Salish Sea — six of which return to feed in the rich waters here.
Big Mama now has seven grand-calves and four great-grand-calves — an impressive legacy, said Gless.
Humpback mothers give birth over the winter in warmer waters off Hawaii, Mexico and Central America. Big Mama is part of the Hawaiian population.
After a few months, mom and baby travel thousands of miles north to their feeding grounds, dodging fishing gear, shipping traffic and killer whales, their natural predators.
“It’s a perilous journey, but one Big Mama has made many times before,” said Gless.
Two of Big Mama’s previous calves, Divot, born in 2003, and Moresby, born in 2022, also recently arrived in the Salish Sea for the season. In coming weeks, more humpbacks will return to B.C. waters, where they will feed on small fish and krill.
Humpbacks typically remain in the area through fall before migrating for winter.
The Pacific Whale Watch Association has more than 500 humpbacks in its Salish Sea catalogue, identified by the unique markings on their flukes.
Before humpbacks were protected, thousands of the whales were harvested from whaling stations along the B.C. coast starting in 1908, decimating the population.
