Thursday, June 5

This morning, we had reports of whales off the Victoria waterfront. When we arrived on scene, we found a group of L-pod whales heading west and spread out over several miles. The whales were making their way to Race Pass and we were pleased to see several whales foraging and travelling slowly west. As the whales were travelling west, we left them temporarily to explore Race Rocks Ecological Reserve where we found several bald eagles and lots of harbour seals! On the way back to Victoria, we stopped briefly in Race Rocks where we found a group of whales porpoising west at a high rate of speed. This is a spectacular behaviour to see as the whales jump clear of the water while travelling and it was a great way to end a wonderful wildlife experience.

Our afternoon trip was a fantastic one as we encountered a large group of L-pod whales offshore of San Juan Island near Salmon Bank. We had a great visit from Faith (L57) and were pleased to see the new L-pod calf. We travelled north with the whales as they made their way towards San Juan Island. It was an excellent adventure with a wonderful group of guests.

For our evening trip we went to San Juan Island to meet up with some members of L-pod. The waters were a little choppy but we still managed to get some nice views of one male and a few females. We believe the male was Flash (L73), who is a male with a similar dorsal fin to the well known Ruffles (J1) from J-pod. For most of the trip the whales were traveling but we did manage to get one breach from the group which is always exciting to see and a nice way to finish the day!