A very close call has been captured on video of the moment a feeding humpback whale surfaced just metres away from a group of kayakers on Bowen Island. While the video is incredible, the distance between the animal and the group is serving as an important reminder about the animals themselves.
John Adam, who took the incredible video with his family during a kayaking excursion, explains that they weren’t on the water hoping for this kind of up-close experience by any means.
“We don’t want to encourage thrill seekers,” he said, saying that the family had actually rafted up and stopped for a rest when suddenly the whale surfaced.
Adding, “Our experience could easily have gotten unsafe [very] quickly. As a family we want to encourage responsible interactions [with] nature — especially when so close to a big city.”
He added a message at the end of the video on Facebook to ensure folks were able to get more context.
“We had been rafted up by the shore for several minutes snacking before the whale appeared. Before the video began, the humpback had surfaced twice, lunge-feeding about 10-12m away. We knew it was there and we were excited about it. This was not an attack. It was feeding and we happened to be floating in its dining room,” the message reads in full.
Jackie Hildering, humpback researcher for Marine Education and Research Society told Daily Hive that the whale in the video has been identified as Malachite who was born in 2021.
“He has very strong site fidelity to the Salish Sea, coming back from the breeding grounds to feed here,” she said. “Humpbacks have to be able to build up their reserves quickly because for months of the year they are in warm-water breeding grounds where there is little to no food for them (Hawaii, Mexico, or Central America). ”
Social media promoting dangerous encounters?
While the world of social media and video sharing is complex and can be a relative minefield ethically, this video offers a teachable moment.
MERS says it is growing increasingly concerned about similar videos shared on social media that might spur copycats and other risk-takers to recreate it.
“It’s tricky” when people share footage of their humpback encounters,” Hildering said.
There is no doubt the group of kayakers that spotted Malachite in BC waters was an accidental encounter, she admitted. However, that same video can be reposted online with clickbait captions and descriptions, Hildering added.
She added that when people say, “Look at how lucky we were,” “Look, what the whale did,” and “We were so close!” it is likely to feed misunderstanding, and more people wanting to be close to the mammals.
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Social media users like the Bowen Island Facebook Group have tried to share the humpback encounter in an effort to educate.
Part of that effort was by sharing photos instead of the video, “because it serves as an excellent example of just how close to shore a humpback might be feeding,” a Facebook post reads.
“We want to make sure that the video doesn’t inspire copycats… it’s a very dangerous situation and technically illegal although in this case the people were rafting and could not avoid the feeding whale,” Rafal Izdebski told Daily Hive.
“Accidents can happen”
Hildering emphasizes further that humpbacks can be “very unpredictable.”
She added that people should not aim to get as close as the kayakers happened to be on Bowen Island.
“It is dangerous,” she said. “Accidents can happen.”
“It is so important for boaters to realize that this is what Humpbacks are so often doing here, they are feeding. Collision is a very real risk to the safety of all boaters,” she added.
Hildering said kayakers have been flipped, boats have been disabled, and people have been thrown from their boats, suffered blunt force trauma, and someone in BC waters was even paralyzed because of a whale collision.
Additionally, she said there are laws marine mammal regulations around distances to reduce noise in BC waters.
“Granted, kayaks are little noise, but there is also just disturbance,” Hildering pointed out. “There is disturbance in terms of the whale not being able to live out its life as it may need to.”
There is also concern from researchers that in the long term, whales will become habituated to boats.
Awareness campaign
4VI (formerly Tourism Vancouver Island), MERS and the North Island Marine Mammal Stewardship Association (NIMMSA) have since been working with each other to create an awareness campaign for visitors about responsible marine mammal viewing.
“Our goal is to ensure that visitors are provided with accurate information about safe distances and expectations for guests, without putting wildlife or humans at risk.”
Hildering is warning people to be vigilant year-round in BC waters as the number of large whales near the coast has increased significantly “largely due to populations slowly rebuilding since the end of commercial whaling.”
She also said that when a whale lifts their tail (fluke), “this does NOT always mean they are down for a long dive.”