Humpback Whale, Sept19th 2007.

California Sea Lion
Harbor Porpoise
Above and below are pictures of Stellar Sea Lions.

This Stellar Sea Lion has some sort of growth on its cheek and is being monitored by Marine Mammal Researcher, Ron Bates. So far the animal seems healthy enough.




The pictures above are of the Humpback we saw in the afternoon.

Above and below are pictures of Stellars in the water at Race Rocks.

Humpback Whale sighted in the morning.
Cormorant nest at Chain Islands.
Seal at Chain Islands.

We set out at 10.00 am this morning in search of wildlife as no reports of whales had been received so we headed to Discovery Island and the Chain Islands to see the Seals and Marine birds, plus look out for Whales. Shortly after leaving Discovery Island a Humpback Whale was sighted a few miles south of Discovery Island. The Humpback was coming to the surface on a consistant basis before going on pretty short dives, which made for good viewing for our passengers. With this Humpback being so close to Victoria we also had time to stop at Race Rocks and see the many Sea lions, several of which were swimming in the water.

During our 2.00pm tour we headed south of Constance bank and caught up with the Humpback we had been observing in the morning. More Humpbacks had been found to the west but this animal was the closest to Victoria, which meant more time watching the Whale and less time travelling. We had several close passes by the Humpback as we sat floating in the water and we also saw a couple of impressive tail flukes.

After watching the Humpback for a while we headed towards Race Rocks and caught site of a number of Harbor Porpoises. Then as we continued on our way to Race we saw some Dalls Porpoises and as we got closer several of them began to play the bow wave of our boat (please see separate post for pictures and more details).

At Race Rocks we again saw (and smelt) the hundreds of Harbor Seals and both Stellar and California Sea lions. With the beautiful sunny weather and flat calm seas it was the perfect day to be on the water.