It is not very often that our boats have such different tours during the same departure time, but today was one of those days. We had a report of a pod of orca that were travelling together in Stuart Channel, but there were a lot of other whales watching boats already there watching them, so we could only have one of our boats head directly there. They ended up watching the T077s who were just off of Chemainus when we caught up with them.

T077 Asja ♀ (~1981)
T077C Neftali ♂ (2006)
T077D Alycon ♀ (2009)
T077E Misneach (2016)

These orca had just finished hunting by the time the semi-covered boat pulled up to them, and were treated to an after-meal celebration! Some of the whales were swimming on their back, slapping their pectoral fins on the water, while the matriarch Asja showed the younger whales how to really celebrate with a breach! It was fun watching them celebrate, and then they reverted back to travel mode and continued moving along Vancouver Island.

While they were watching the orca, the open boat headed out into the Strait of Georgia to try and kill some time. The best way to kill time is always with another whale, so they started searching for humpbacks in the waves. It didn’t take them long before spotting their whale, since Cassiopeia (BCY0796) was making it easy for them. This 15-meter-long whale was doing quite a bit of surface activity when the open boat found them, breaching fully out of the water, slapping their chin down on the waves, and also slapping their 5-meter-long pectoral fins down on the water. It was quite a sight to see! While they were watching these feats of athleticism from Cassiopeia, another boat on the way to watch him along with ours came across a different pod of orca that was travelling in the Strait. We decided that instead of the long trip to the T077s that the other boat saw, we would stay in the strait and go to these whales instead!

When they arrived on scene with the whales, we recognized the fins as some members of the T037As:

T037A Volker ♀ (1994)
T037A2 Inky ♂ (2009)
T037D Crinkle ♀ (2015)

These whales were also just travelling, but heading north in the Strait. We didn’t stay with them for too long before it was time to start the journey home! Since the T077s brought our other boat south, they also didn’t have time to search the strait.

Both boats ended up travelling to a Steller Sea Lion haul-out after their time spent with their respective whales and got to not only see these amazingly large animals, but they also got to smell them! There’s a reason we have nicknamed this reef “Stinky Rocks”. Not only are these pinnipeds pooping all over the rocks, but they also have very poor oral hygiene. You can imagine how bad their breath might get by constantly eating fish and cephalopods, and never brushing your teeth! Its the combined bad breath of nearly fifty Sea Lions as well as their poop on the rocks. Not great to smell, but fantastic to see!

There was one final stop to make along this tour, and that was at the Gabriola Bluffs where both boats were treated to a look at the Bald Eagles nest, with the youngster, Greyson, sitting on the edge. There was also so many cormorants that were nesting along the cliffside! A great end to a couple of very different, but very exciting trips. The photos from the Semi-covered boat were taken by Lucy Willis, and the open boat photos were taken by Aly Kohlman. Both can be viewed below!

July 4, 2024, 3:30 pm - Jumping for joy!

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