FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2009, Morning Trip MINKE WHALES AT HEIN BANK & K-POD OF ORCAS
On Friday morning we headed out on calm seas with no reports of whales, knowing only that on Thursday night J-pod and K-pod had headed North and were probably still somewhere within 40 miles (60kms) of Victoria. But were they North, East, South or West?
We headed South from Victoria out to the middle of Juan de Fuca Strait so that we could use binoculars to scan up to 3 miles in all directions. No finding any whales there, we proceeded East to Hein Bank, where we encountered large flocks of birds; a good indication of large schools of fish near the surface, often pushed to the surface by large cetacea as they surge up from the depths. Soon after arriving we saw one Minke Whale [10 meters (30 feet) in length and weighing about 10 tonnes]...and then another...and another, at least 4 whales in total.
We got a report of Transient Killer Whales, but they were out West past Sooke and quickly moving away from us. But just as our hopes waned, we received a call that there were Orcas coming down the West side of San Juan Island. We headed North as quickly as we could and were able to catch a quick view of K-pod of Resident (Fish-Eating) Killer Whales before we had to head back in to get our passengers back to Victoria for connections to the next part of their visit to Victoria.
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