Transient Orcas, Humpback Whale and K & L Pod!! Sept 22nd 2007.

We received reports of Transient Orcas near Sooke this morning so off we set on our 9am tour and headed West. Apart from one other boat from the fleet we were the only boats looking for the Transients and soon picked them up near Beachy Head. Not long after arriving on scene, Ron Bates (Marine Mammal Researcher), identified the Transients as the T10's. Whilst we were watching the Orcas moving West, they suddenly changed direction and split up. Then in the distance Ron and Captain Trev Neufeld saw more fins and blows way offshore and so we went to investigate and realized L and K pod were travelling inbound from the West! So we were the hero's of the day and spread the word that our 2 resident Orca pods were heading East after spending almost a week at Swiftshure Bank.

As we were heading back to Victoria we encountered a Humpback Whale not far from the Harbor and spent some time watching this magnificent Baleen Whale. It was trumpeting loudly as it surfaced and made a couple of deep dives, which showed off its large tailfluke.

In the afternoon we caught up with Lpod and Kpod spread out over a wide area near the West coast of San Juan Islands. We first saw a group of Orcas near False Bay and identified L57 "Faith", L41 "Mega", L77 "Matia" and L94 "Calypso" amongst the many Orcas that could be seen.

It was great to see Lpod and Kpod again and we had another amazing day on the water.

Jpod and L's near Heine Bank. Sept 20th 2007.

These passengers were visiting Victoria from Manchester, England, not far from where I lived before moving to Canada.

Today we encountered Jpod and a sub pod of Lpod, the L2's, near Heine Bank. The first Orcas we identified when we arrived on scene was J8 "Spieden" and J30 "Riptide" travelling West about 2-3 miles offshore and then we saw J1 "Ruffles" swimming nearby. J8 and J30 made numerous tailslaps and tailflukes before changing direction and heading North East. J1 also began to change direction and gradually did a full 180 degree turn and started heading back into shore.

After following J8, J30 and J1, we noticed a larger group of Orcas closer to shore and went for a closer look. When we got within 400 meters we realized we had nearly all of Jpod in close formation heading West. The group of Orcas were surfacing in unison and regularly, before making a deep dives for a few minutes. They changed direction on a couple of occasions during their deep dives. Amongst the members of Jpod we saw J28 "Polaris", J27 "Blackberry", J26 "Mike", his mother J16 "Slick" and the new Jpod calf born in May, J42. Other members identified included J19 "Shachi", J22 "Oreo", J38 "Cookie", J34 "Doublestuff", J17 "Princess Angeline" and J36 "Alki". A group of Lpod were mixed in with Jpod and there was another group of Orcas further off-shore that our sister boat Supercat, had been following. We caught up with this group at the end of our tour as we were leaving the scene at slow speed.

On our way home we stopped off at the Chain Islands to show our passengers the Harbor Seals and Cormorants, including the new Cormorant nest with the fledglings that are just a few weeks old.

Sept 19 & 20

Photos above are from Sept 20 - J and L pods appeared from the west yesterday and are seen here in resting patterns. Some of the individuals of Jpod including Granny J1, Mike J26 and others were seen in fishing behavior. All the animals were seen heading in a southwest direction however were not traveling away, just probably moving into a feeding position.














Above are photos from Sept 19th. Please see the post below for an extensive review of that trip.

Incredible Dalls Porpoise encounter, Sept 19th 2007.

This afternoon we had an amazing Dalls Porpoise encounter just East of Race Rocks. We spotted the Dalls near another vessel and then as we approached several of them started playing in our bow wave. It was breathtaking seeing these swift Porpoise manoeuvre effortlessly in the water. Dalls Porpoise often enjoy playing in the bow wave of boats and seem to like the duel hull of our vessels in particular.

We watched the Dalls play for well over 5 minutes before the suddenly took off and left us all in awe at what we had just witnessed.