Thursday, October 31, 2013

Oct 19th 2013 - Humpbacks Lunge Feeding!





























































Here are a few images from today's encounter with multiple Humpbacks, including a couple that were lunge feeding! We had a wonderful group of people on board including a large group of international students that were visiting Victoria and were hoping to see whales:)
We had not been out of the harbour very long when we encountered our first of several Humpbacks, not far from Race Rocks. Not long after we spotted the first one we realized their was actually another nearby and both were lunge feeding! Humpbacks feed on small bait fish or krill and will coral the fish into a big ball force it up to the surface and then swallow the ball of fish entirely. We have been seeing more lunge feeding events by Humpbacks this year than ever before:)
At Race Rocks Ecological Reserve we encountered hundreds of Sea Lions, Harbor Seals and Northern Elephant Seals. We even watched as a Steller Sea Lion attacked, killed and ate a large Salmon!
We then encountered more Humpbacks west of Race Rocks before heading home after another successful day:)