Sunday, August 19th

Our 9 am tour aboard the Orca Spirit headed out into Juan De Fuca Strait in search of orcas and other cetaceans that abound in the Salish Sea. We headed west past Race Rocks Ecological Reserve into Whirl Bay where the eagle eye of our captain(pardon the pun) noticed a large raptor perched in a tree. Seeing bald eagles on a tour is always a thrill, as we admired the majestic bird of prey in the light rain showers - the true west coast experience. Also present in the bay was a great blue heron! We continued our journey west and eventually did a large sweep to the northeast as we received word that the resident orcas had been located travelling inbound several miles southeast of Race Rocks. When we arrived, we found members of all three pods travelling in a resting pod as they made their way towards San Juan Island. A resting pod of resident whales is an amazing sight. Today, we had what appeared to be J and K pod together in one resting group, followed closely by L pod - two groups of whales that were probably in excess of 40 whales each!

For the afternoon trip, we headed further east as the whales had made their way into Haro Strait and were making their way close to San Juan Island. When we arrived, we noticed all three 3 pods of way still in resting formation. We spent time with both groups of orcas - the J and K resting group, as well as the L's. As the whales neared the island, they become more active and we were treated to several spyhops and some exciting porpoising behaviour by the J and K group. On our way back towards Victoria, we cruised by Chatham and Discovery Island, where we noticed some harbour seals and an eagle perched on a dead tree near the southern tip of Discovery Island. Travelling to Great Chain Island, we found another bald eagle perched on the cormorant colony.