Thursday, June 26

After 3 years working at orca spirit I figure I can pretty much know how the day is going to go by the time the 9am tour leaves the dock. But this is not the case, the wind, waves and wild animals still has a hand up on me. The morning tour was spent riding along the west shore of San Juan Island. We watched a few Dall's porpoises as they rode the wake of our boat and fed in the productive waters we stirred. From there we traveled north to Speiden Island where we found some long horned sheep graving on the barren, arid like slops. Keeping our eyes to the sea and skies we also watched many bald eagles as they flu over head and swooped down over the water looking for fish. We also went by D'Arcy Island and the Chain Islands to see many harbour seals hauled out on the rocks, trying to keep warm by the suns rays. Although no whales were found, it was a great time on the water.

The after noon trip had a direction right off the dock. We were notified of a group of resident orcas traveling north bound along the west side of San Juan Island. Once on scene, all aboard were pleased to get a fabulous look at J-pod. This high social group of 25 orcas were feeding off the many salmon that concentrated along this fruitful shoreline. Guests were thrilled to see Ruffles (J1, a 57 yr old male) as he surfaced several times given all a close look at his wavy 6 ft dorsal fin. We enjoy these large yet peaceful top predators of the sea as they just continued feeding as though no one were around them. From there we made our way back towards Victoria stopping at Discovery Island to see a dew dozen harbour seals on the rocks and another small group swimming amongst the bull kelp in search of food. Out last stop was at Chain Island to check out the large Double-crested Cormorant nest atop the highest point. These amazing deep diving (up to 200 ft below) sat perched looking for their next meal. Although I knew in the morning we were in for a great day, it’s never as great in my head as it is by the time the day is over.

Wednesday, June 25

Odontocetes and Mysticetes

‘Twas a fog filled morning on the west side of San Juan Island when we got the report of the Southern Resident orcas over in that part of the Salish Sea. Finding orcas in fog is definitely a challenge, as you often ear them before you see them. We knew they were around so dropped the hydrophone on a regular basis in order to pick up any vocalisations, but could not pick anything up. Time was running out and there were many boats in that area that still hadn’t found any. Suddenly we hear over the radio “I have contact” and sure enough passengers were shortly after able to witness members of J-pod (J16 and her four offspring) travelling close together. It’s awesome to be able to see a family unit side by side, and appreciate the social bonds these animals have with each other. A long search it was, but we were able to show passengers these amazing cetaceans in the end.

The afternoon tours headed out and back across to the west side of San Juan Island where we caught up with some more members of J-pod. Again we witnessed a family unit of four orcas travelling together as they angled back into the shore to join up with other members of the pod that were hugging the coastline. Passengers were extremely lucky to get some phenomenal pass-bys and thus some great photos for their holiday album. So now we’d seen some odontocetes (toothed whales), it was time to go and see a mysticete (baleen whale). We had got a report of a juvenile Humpback whale a mile just south of Victoria and so decided to go and check it out. Arriving on scene we had to find it and sure enough, we soon saw the distinct blow and then the hump on its back and its tail fluke up in the air. It went down for a few more dives, and we all had our eyes peeled then all of a sudden, it surfaced right next to the boat! And showed us its tail fluke! Absolutely unbelievable! Both Sean and myself (naturalists) were beside ourselves! What a treat! We then saw it surface further away and repeatedly slap its tail on the surface of the water. The splash was amazing!
This juvenile would have had to have been at least 10 metres long (can get up to 16m). To be honest this trip was bloody amazing as we saw two species of whale, all about half an hour from Victoria. Seriously, where else in the world folks can you see this kind of cetacean diversity from the capital city of a province? How lucky I am to be able to live here and work in this industry.
Check out the pic below I managed to snap one of the times the humpy presented its tail fluke for all passengers to see.