Friday, June 6th

The sun managed to poke its head through the clouds this afternoon to what was a very pleasant afternoon out on the water. The Pacific Explorer with Captain John and marine naturalists Tim and Sean cruised out to waters south of Victoria in the search of whales. We had got a report of a Minke whale at Constance Bank (~4 miles due south of Victoria Harbour) but alas we could not find the elusive creature when we arrived in the area. We then headed west to Race Rocks and here passengers certainly got an unexpected pinniped show. As we navigated our way around the ever increasing bull kelp beds we noticed a few juvenile Northern Elephant seals lounging on the top of the centre rock. As we came around the western side of centre rock we saw two male California Sea Lions that were “snuggled” quite close together, with the larger of the two being quite vocal, his distinctive barking sound echoing for all passengers to hear. Next thing we knew a large male Stellar Sea Lion popped his head up close to our boat and swam over to the Californians. The Stellar then proceeded to try and get up on the exact rock where the two Californians were hauled out, but these two sea lions weren’t going to have a bar of it. The larger of the California Sea Lions began to bark repeatedly as if to say to the Stellar “Get off our rock man, there’s no room here for you. Get your own rock dude” (spoken in my best Californian accent). The Stellar then hauled back into the water and surfaced only 20m from our vessel, getting a good luck at us and giving passengers an extremely good look at him. He surfaced close a few more times, checking us out each time, then went on a deeper dive and we lost track of him. Passengers also got to check out an abundance of Harbour Seals hauled out on the neighbouring rocks, and were easily able to notice the difference between the ‘true’ seals (Harbour seals and Elephant seals) and the ‘eared’ seals (Stellar and California sea lions). We then headed west to Whirl Bay where we saw a bald eagle perched up on its nest at the top of the tree, then out of the rich blue water a California Sea Lion popped his head out to check us all out, surprising passengers (and naturalists!). I guess he must have been fishing and thought he’d take a break to see what the passengers on the Pacific Explorer looked like. On another rock in Whirl Bay we noticed another bald eagle perched there, standing ever so still, giving passengers some great photos. We headed further west to the entrance to Becher Bay, and as it was a flood tide, we thought we might be able to head off something coming in from the west, but alas, nothing was spotted. It was time to make our way back to Victoria and although we were still scanning the horizon for the trace of a black dorsal fin, or any fin for that matter, unfortunately nothing was spotted. Still, it really was a lucky trip to be able to see the awesome pinniped show, and the sun stayed out for most of it which brightened the mood of all on board. At the end of a trip one of our youngest passengers said to me “That trip was fantastic, I had a really great time”. Although we unfortunately couldn’t find any whales, I think this little bloke’s comments summed up what really was a great afternoon whale trip.