Aug 7th – Humpback Adventure!

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Andrew

Humpback Adventure

Today we had an awesome Humpback adventure with at least 2 Humpbacks south of Victoria  The two Humpback Whales, and maybe a third, were all encountered south of Victoria. One of the Humpbacks was being very playful and was waving its pectoral fin and tail flukes in the air, much to the delight of our passengers! We also got to see a lot of tail flukes as the Humpbacks went down on deep dives. It is so amazing to see the comeback of Humpbacks to the Salish Sea after they were almost wiped out by the whaling operations in the Pacific North West. Each year we seem to be getting more and more of these large baleen whales and they are being encountered earlier in the season and staying around longer 

Apart from the awesome encounters with the Humpbacks we also got to spend some quality time at Race Rocks where we encountered Harbor Seals, Northern Elephant Seals, Stellar and California Sea Lions. We also encountered a number of Harbor Porpoise whilst out on our trips today.

To see more images from today’s encounters please click on the link below;

Aug 7 – Amazing Humpback Adventure

Aug 6th – Resident Killer Whales off San Juan!

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Andrew

Resident Killer Whales

Resident Killer Whales

Today we had another fun day of with the Resident Killer Whales off San Juan Island! We watched a lot of foraging behavior today as the Orcas hunted for Salmon, in particular Chinook Salmon. One Salmon jumped high out of the water just in front of the boat, surprising a few of our passengers  We also got to witness a lot of socializing between the Orcas today as they moved up and down the west side.

Echolocation

All recorded toothed whales are known to produce pulsed underwater sounds that they use on a regular basis to forage, navigate, and avoid predators; These sounds also help whales investigate objects from different angles to maximize amount of echoing information and easily discriminate small objects. They produce “click trains” or pulses of broad-frequency clicks. These clicks strike an object, and part of the sound energy is reflected back “heard” by the whale and interpreted.

Clicks can be repeated up to 600 times per second (in the case of bottlenose dolphins)! The rate of click repetition is adjusted to allow the echo to return between outgoing sounds – the speed at which a click returns to the emitting whale from the object is a measure of the distance to that object. Additional echoes that are received may be interpreted to indicate the target’s speed and direction (if moving) – the click repetition rate increases as the whale closes in on the target.

Image courtesy of http://listen.orcasound.net/BeginHere/HowDoOrcasMakeSound.aspx

Apart from the SRKW’s we also got to encounter a Minke Whale, Harbor Porpoise and Harbor Seals & Pups  What a wonderful day on the Salish Sea!

If you would like to see more images from today please click on the link below;

Aug 6th – Resident Killer Whales

Aug 3rd – Lpod off San Juan

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Andrew

Lpod

Today we encountered members of Lpod including L41 “Mega” and the L12’s  We also has L22 “Spirit” and her son L89 “Solstice”.The Orcas were fishing around several Gil Nets, which is amazing to watch how they can skilfully avoid these large nets and get the Salmon they need.

On our way home we stopped off at the Chain Islets to show our guests the Harbor Seals and their many Pups, always a thrill for our guest, especially seeing the cute Pups 

We had a little bit of an adventurous ride on the way home due to some waves created by the ebb tide and a little breeze but Supercat handled it in her stride as always!

If you would like to see more images from this tour please click on the link below;

Aug 3rd – Lpod

Aug 2nd - Evening Superpod!

August 2nd – Evening Superpod!

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Andrew

Superpod

This evening we had one of the most stupendous evening trips of the season with a Superpod in Haro Strait!!! It was a gorgeous evening with amazing colours in the sky and very active Orcas spread right across Haro Strait  We encountered the Orcas just south of Battleship and followed them as they traveled towards Turn Point. As we observed the Orcas we witnessed several breaches, spy-hops , Porpoising (high speed swimming), and tail slaps. We spent a nice time with the J16’s that include two of the new J-pod babies, J50 & J52 and J50 was being her usual spunky self:)  We left the Orcas as they passed by Turn Point.

On our way home we stopped off at the Chain Islets to show our guests the bounty of Marine Life that included Harbor Seals & their Pups, Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Harlequin Ducks, Black Oyster Catchers and Sea Gulls!

A stunning sunset  on our way home was a fitting finale to an unforgettable evening:)

You can see more images from this tour by clicking on the link below;

Aug 2nd – Evening Superpod 

Aug 1st – Resident Orcas & a Humpback!

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Andrew

Orcas

a Humpback

Orcas

Today our tours had ecounters with Resident Orcas & a Humpback! In the morning the Orcas were near Oak Bay Flats heading towards the San Juan Islands. We witnessed close formation swimming in various martilines plus some breaching and spyhops. During our afternoon encounter the Orcas had moved over to the west side Of San Juan Island and we watched them foraging in the rip tides. We also got to see some breaching and tail slaps 

The Humpback Whale was encountered a little east of Seabird Point during both trips. We also got to see a large amount of Harbor Seas with Pups and Porpoise. It was a wonderful day on the water 

If you would like to see more images from today’s tours click on  the following link;

Aug 1st – Orcas & a Humpback

July 31st PM - Resident Orcas off San Juan Island!

July 31 PM – Resident Orcas off San Juan Island!

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Andrew

This afternoon we encountered the Resident Orcas from this morning by San Juan Island as they foraged for Salmon!

You can see more images from this encounter at the following link;

July 31 PM – Resident Orcas off San Juan

July 31st AM – Resident Orcas and Humpback Whales off Victoria!

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Andrew

Killer Whales off Victoria

Humpback Whales off Victoria

This morning we were lucky enough to find Resident Orcas and Humpback Whales off Victoria  The Orcas were from Jpod and were in two groups, including the J16’s with two of the new babies! The other group included J27 “Blackberry”, J28 “Polaris”, the Cookie Crew and a number of other Orcas. When we were with the J16’s we were the only boat on scene as the other boats had wither gone to the other group we had found or to Race Rocks. We spent a wonderful time with J16 “Slick” and her matriline that includes J26 “Mike”, J36 “Alki”, J42 “Echo” and the two new babies J50 (J16’s Baby) and J52 (J36’s Baby).

The Humpbacks were located a little East of Race Rocks plus we got to spend time at Race Rocks watching the large number of Seals & Sea Lions. It was a great start to the morning and proof that Victoria Whale Watching is amongst the best in the world 

To see more images from this fantastic encounter please click on the link below;

July 31st – Lots of Whales off Victoria

July 30th PM – Orcas off San Juan plus a Humpback!

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Andrew

Orcas off San Juan

This afternoon we had a magnificent encounter with Resident Orcas & a Humpback! We encountered the Orcas off the west side of San Juan Island spread between Eagle Point and Hanna Heights. We got to witness Spyhops, Porpoising and tail slaps as the Orcas foraged for Salmon.

The Humpback Whale was encountered a little to the west of Beaumont Shoals feeding in a tide line. We got to see some tail fluking as the Humpback went on a deep dive.

Apart from the whales we also saw a number of Porpoise near Beaumont Shoals and Harbor Seals & Pups, so cute 

If you would like to see more images from this afternoon’s adventure then click on the link below;

July 30th PM – Orcas & a Humpback this afternoon

July 30th AM - Resident Killer Whales this morning

July 30th AM – Resident Killer Whales this morning off San Juan Island!

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Andrew

Resident Killer Whales

This morning we encountered Resident Killer Whales off shore of the San Juan Islands. The Orcas were spread out in their Matralines off shore moving towards the west side of San Juan. We got to see a lot of Spyhops this morning as the Orcas traveled East. The Orcas were also seen doing pectoral waves and tail slaps. We also got to see a couple of the new babies including J50  On our way home we stopped at the Chain Islets to show our guests a the Harbor Seals & Pups!

When Killer Whales hunt for Salmon, they use a very sophisticated form of sonar called echo-location. This echo-location consists of the Orca sending sonic pulses ahead of them, which hit an object and then rebound back to the Orca.

To see more images from this wonderful adventure please click on the following link;

July 30 AM – Resident Killer Whales this morning

July 27th PM – Resident Orcas & Humpbacks this afternoon!

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Andrew

Resident Orcas

Humpback near Victoria

This afternoon Resident Orcas were encountered heading east just west of Race Rocks and we also encountered a number of Humpback Whales! The report came in late in the morning that Orcas had been spotted out west heading towards Sooke. By the time we headed out for our afternoon tour the Orcas had continued to travel east and we located them not far from the Humpbacks we had encountered in the morning  We witnessed tail slaps, pectoral waves, sharking (when the Orca shows just the tip of its dorsal fin above water as it travels at high speed) and spy hops. At one stage the Orcas & Humpback passed within 100m of each other but continued on their separate ways. As we were close to Race Rocks we once again got to show our guests this incredible Ecological Reserve and the amazing Marine Mammals that call Race Rocks home.

You can see more images from this incredible encounter by clicking on the link below;

July 27th PM – Resident Orcas & Humpbacks

July 27th - Epic Humpback Whale encounter!

July 27th AM – Epic Humpback Whale encounter!

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Andrew

Humpback Whale

This morning we had an epic Humpback Whale encounter near Race Rocks when we spent time with at least 5 Humpbacks! We got to see lots of tail flukes as the Humpbacks went on their deep dives. One of the Humpbacks really put on a show as she began to wave and slap her enormous pectoral fins, it was a thrilling sight  We also got the chance to visit Race Rocks ecological reserve where we saw a large number of Sea Lions and Harbor Seals.

You can see more images from this epic encounter by clicking on the link below;

July 27th AM – Epic Humpback encounter

July 26th – Humpbacks all day!

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Andrew

Humpbacks

All of our three trips today, including our special evening trip, had wonderful encounters with Humpback Whales near Race Rocks!

To see more images from today click on the link below;

July 26th – Humpbacks all day

July 24th – Magnificent Day with Resident Killer Whales!

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Andrew

Resident Killer whales

Today despite the rain we had another magical day with Resident Orcas off San Juan Island! The rain did not stop play today as the Orcas were in a very playful mood, especially the youngsters:) We got to see tail slaps & breaching as well as some porpoising today. The Orcas could also be seen doing a lot of foraging, hunting for Salmon, throughout the day. We got to see several member of Jpod including J26 “Mike”, J16 “Slick”, her calf J50, J36 “Alki” and her calf J52, plus many others.

To see more images from this wonderful day click on the link below;

July 24th – Magnificent day with Resident Killer Whales

July 23rd - Another awesome day with Orcas!

July 23rd – Another awesome day with Resident Orcas!

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Andrew

Today we had another awesome day with the Resident Orcas! In the morning we encountered the Orcas spread out near False Bay. We also got to see a young juvenile hunting a Salmon, whihc he finally caught In the afternoon the Orcas had moved offshore and we caught up with them between Salmon Bank & Hein Bank. Apart from the Orcas we also got to see a Minke Whale as well as Harbor Seals & Harbor Porpoise. It was another perfect day whale watching in the Salish Sea 

To see more images from today click on the link below;

July 23rd – Another awesome day with Orcas