Well, our whales sent us on a wild goose chase this afternoon! Come along with us and I’ll tell you a little about this trip out on our bountiful Salish Sea.

We started out heading northeast in the direction of Texada Island where we had spotted a humpback whale this morning in the middle of the Georgia Strait. We stopped our boat right close to where we had spotted our 1st humpback of the AM. It was a beautiful calm day on the water with virtually no wind so we decided to shut our engines down and listen for the blows of the humpback. We were unlucky this time, but we sure had a relaxing rest waiting and viewing our mountains showing themselves off in the sun.

Next, we began to head back south, with the hopes of finding our 2nd humpback from the morning. We boated up along the shores of Entrance Island, again very close to where our humpback was spotted. I will say I’m sure happy we got to show off our Stellar sea lions and Harbour seals at Entrance because our humpback was just as elusive as the 1st one! Then…a report, we have orca spotted near the shore of Gabriola. We set off back south-west in our search to find them asap! We cruised along the western side of Gabriola, taking in the view of the breathtaking bluffs. Where are those orca, to find or not to find that is the question? We turned back around heading north-west and checked along Jack Point, no one to be found there either? So we figured we better check the east side of Gabriola, back south-west we go! By this time I’m starting to get a little nervous, do I just need to clean my glasses? Then there in the distance, I see a small spout of water right close to shore. Still thinking it’s a false alarm, just because I want to find them for our guests so badly. Then another spout and a big towering dorsal fin of a male orca appears! We found Jude and Ellifrit! Where we were treated to a magical time with them moving very slowly hugging the shore, and we could hear the blows perfectly echoing off the rock face. Sometimes it does take us a while to find the whales, but we usually catch up to them eventually. There is beauty in this as none of our whales are tagged or chipped, we find them with our own eyes. Also, it shows how they are wild animals in their natural habitats and that is what we want to showcase!

T49A2 Jude is a 15-year-old male whom we see often in different duos with other whales. Today, he was hanging out with T65A4 Ellifrit, an 11-year-old female orca. Transient orca are estimated to reach ages of greater than 60 years old!

Other than Jude and Ellifrit, we spotted some very photogenic seals at Entrance Island and a bald eagle was spotted on the shore of Gabriola near Jude and Ellifrit! Both are featured in images below.

Photos this evening were taken by our Naturalist Vanessa.

July 8th 3:30 PM - Jude and Ellifrit along Gabriola Island

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