Monday, August 20

For our morning trip we were pleasantly surprised to hear that Transient Orcas were spotted at the southern edge of Victoria at Ten Mile Point. When we arrived on scene we discovered the transient group and sat and watched them as they kept swimming back and forth in the same area. We think they must have been hunting and that possibly one of the large males did in fact catch a prey although we didn’t actually observe prey in their mouth. The group eventually began traveling and started heading west towards the Great Chain Islands. We eventually left the pod to observe Cormorants and Harbour Seals among the Chain Islands and made one last stop at Trial Island to view a pair of Bald Eagles before heading back to the harbour.


By the time our boat left for the afternoon trip, the group of transient orcas was south west of the harbour. We arrived on scene very quickly and observed the transient group as they continued south. A Sea Lion and a Harbour Seal were spotted swimming in the water near the Transient Orcas, both mammals that the transient would feed on if the opportunity arose. We then left the Transient Orcas to go visit a Humpback Whale. The Humpback was happily playing in a tideline full of Bull Kelp and rose multiple times with the seaweed dangling from his head (see photos). After some nice views from the Humpback we drove back to Victoria, stopping to visit Race Rocks along the way.