Monday, May 21st

On this morning’s trip, we headed east to the waters of Haro Strait. Off of Discovery Island we encountered a large group of Harbour porpoise foraging. Although normally shy and elusive, we had a great viewing experience of these small cetaceans. For a moment it looked like they might even bowride! Continuing east, we stopped at Whale Rocks near the south end of San Juan Island. This area is a popular seal haulout. We watched a couple of seals foraging and admired a majestic mature bald eagle perched on the rocks. We traveled next to Hein Bank on the lookout for a Minke whale. None were to be found, but the many seabirds in the area were an indication of just how nutrient-rich our waters our. For our final stop of the tour, we stopped at the Chain Islets where saw some more Harbour seals and another bald eagle perched atop the double-crested cormorant colony. The sunny skies, calm waters and wonderful group of guests made for an excellent tour.

We received word from our spotter that J-pod was southbound heading towards East Point and would be in range for our afternoon tour so we headed to the waters of Boundary Pass to meet up with our southern residents. Although it was a long journey, it proved to be well worth it as we found J-pod in a very vocal mood. We had excellent passes and views of several whales including Blackberry (J27) and an incredible view of Polaris (J28). The distinctive dorsal nick of J28 is hard to miss! We finished our whale watching with some great viewing of a small group of orcas, including a young calf.

Our evening trip was fantastic as always, as we met up with J-pod off the picturesque Lime Kiln Lighthouse. The whales were spread out and foraging over several miles; the sounds of their echolocation clicks and calls were easily picked up by our hydrophone. The young "sprouter" Blackberry provided some of the excitement on this trip as well as he did a spectacular lunge and chase after a salmon off our starboard side. Not to be outdone, Ruffles (J1) also put on a magnificent show, playing in the wake of a large freighter before swimming by the Orca Spirit. On the return trip to Victoria, we stopped at Great Chain Island, where we saw not one but two bald eagles at the cormorant colony! It was an excellent end to a spectacular day, proving once again why the 5 pm trip is a staff favourite.