Friday, July 20th

My (onboard biologist Nicole) first super pod! This morning’s trip, despite the fog and a small amount of drizzle was a fantastic trip, one of the best of the year! We left the harbour and not too long after our departure we encountered whales. We began observing the whales and soon realized that we had more than just one pod. We first identified Faith and Mega from L-pod. Then had an amazing pass by Cappucino, so we knew we had L and K-pod but were surprised when Ruffles (J1) made a pass which confirmed our presumptions that we had superpod. Superpods occur when all three pods get together. When this occurs the whales are extremely social and active. On top of our fantastic observations of orcas we also had some great passes by a Minke whale that seemed just as excited as the crew to see the orcas. What a fantastic morning on the Victoria waterfront.

For the afternoon tours we headed back to our super pod. Fortunately the weather cleared up and we had some great views yet again. The whales appeared to be moving more quickly and were spreading out more so probably beginning to travel again. They travelled from Trial Island to Haro Strait during our trip. We had some nice passes from Raggedy and Cappucino from K-pod. After we left the whales we stopped by the Chain Islands where we observed a number of Harbour Seals sitting out on the rocks.

Our final trip of the day brought us over to Lime Kiln Lighthouse where we had a number of orcas spread out in the area. We had a nice pass by one of the adult males from L-pod, Gaia. It appeared that the superpod finally split up. Although just as we were leaving, we had a final pass from Mike, a sprouting male from L-pod, so it appeared that the pods were still a bit mixed together. What a great way to end the day!