Monday April 21st

The Pacific Explorer headed out of Victoria Harbor early this morning with Captain Brad at the helm and marine naturalist Tim on his first solo trip. The decision was made to head south towards Port Angeles as it was relatively calm.
We made it past the Canadian/US border but fortunately no US Customs officials were there to check our passports. We headed west up the Strait of Juan De Fuca with eyes peeled and constantly scanning the horizon. We looped around inshore to Whirl Bay where there were a few lone Harbor Seals sunbathing on the rocks and then headed across to Race Rocks to see what may be hauled out there. We were in luck, with around 30 male Stellar Sea Lions with heads held high and being quite vocal. It’s great to still see them this time of year as we know very soon they will leave us for a few months to go further north for mating.
There were also 3 juvenile Elephant seals on the top of the rock, no doubt here to moult before they make their long migration out to sea over summer. A few male California Sea Lions were also amongst the Stellar’s, and were also quite vocal with their distinctive ‘dog-like’ bark.
A very pinniped dominant trip, and the passengers sure were impressed with the diversity of seals and sea lions they saw.