Monday, August 27

For the morning trip we travelled South out into the Juan de Fuca Strait, beyond race rocks and round to the West searching for any sign of whales. After a while we received a report of Transient Orcas in the area. There was a mature male with the group who was identified as T44, and there was also a fairly new addition to the pod, a small juvenile of under a year old. The behaviour seemed to suggest they were hunting just below the surface, searching for marine mammals such as seals that had also come to feed in the area. After some good views of the passing transients, we headed back to Victoria with a quick stop at Race rocks. Here we spotted many seals and sea lions, with some of the California sea lions swimming and frolicking around in the bull kelp in the surrounding waters.

This afternoon was an extraordinary trip. The waters around Victoria seemed to be teeming with transient orcas! There were 3 different group of transient orcas in the area this afternoon and passengers aboard the Orca Spirit spent time with all three groups. We started our adventure visiting with the T41 group near William Head. This spectacular pod of transients is a regular visitor to our area, and we were pleased to see the group of orcas return. Our passengers were thrilled at the sight of T44, the large male transient and were also awestruck by a cute young calf - a new addition since the last time this naturalist (Corey) saw them! The next part of our voyage took us near Race Rocks where we encountered a larger group of transients that included another large male (T20). The large male put on quite a show for us, tail lobbing and tail slapping! Most of the large group of orcas were in a very playful mood. What was even more astounding was that our hydrophones picked up the whales vocalizing. Transients are seldom heard so this was a real treat indeed. After an awesome pass from the group of transients, our alert captain noticed yet another group of 4 transients south of the main group. We travelled slowly west with the group before heading to Race Rocks and its abundant California and Steller sea lions. Among other things, we noticed a porpoising California sea lion! Finally, we returned to Victoria Harbour where unexpectedly the T41 group were foraging at the mouth of the harbour! This was an incredible trip. We are always excited by any visit from these top predators, although I can imagine that there are many seals, sea lions and porpoises in the area who don't share our enthusiasm.