Monday, July 6th

This morning we headed east towards San Juan Island in search of orcas, minke whales and other marine mammals. Our first stop was Hein Bank, an offshore area south of San Juan Island where marine mammals of all types often feed. There we found at least two minke whales foraging along with harbour seals, cormorants, rhinoceros auklets and gulls. We had a great experience watching these whales lunging near the surface, feeding on small schooling fish such as herring, sandlance or krill. Next we travelled back towards Victoria, stopping near Seabird Point to look at some harbour porpoise. We next toured the Chain Islets, where we saw probably close to a hundred harbour seals hauled out at low tide, including a few young harbour seal pups. Although we did not see orcas this trip, it was a tour that truly highlighted the diverse marine life of the Salish Sea.

By the afternoon we had received word of a large group of orcas that had been discovered several miles west of Sooke and travelling inbound. Captain John and I (naturalist Corey) headed west with an intrepid group of passengers and encountered southern resident orcas near Otter Point. We encountered all three pods moving slowly inbound with the flooding tide. The whales were in resting formation; first we spent time with L-pod, and we noticed the large dorsal fins of Mega (L41), and Saanich (L74) amongst the 40+ whales that were surfacing and diving in unison. After L-pod passed, we spent time with J and K-pods and watched as they passed right near shore also in resting formation. The large dorsal fin of Ruffles was clearly evident - it is always a pleasure to see the old guy! After our amazing encounter, we had a quick stop at Race Rocks to view harbour seals near the historic landmark before heading back to the harbour.