Saturday, August 11th

This morning, we searched the waters of Juan De Fuca Strait in search of humpback whales, orcas and other cetaceans. The first stop of the tour was Race Rocks, where we enjoyed the company of Steller and California sea lions, as well as harbour and elephant seals. Race Rocks, as always was spectacular. After our tour of Race Rocks, we travelled east, where we were fortunate to find a large humpback whale. The whale was doing some spectacular fluke feeding, using her flukes to help gather her prey, before lunging through it at the surface.

The afternoon trip was similar, however, we decided to visit with the humpback whale first as she made her way east towards Race Rocks. The whale was very energetic and did something that this naturalist (Corey) had never seen before - a humpback whale spyhop! We were thrilled by this behaviour, as well as the spectacular fluke feeding. After watching the whale for awhile, we headed east towards Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, where we found another whale actually in the reserve! The whale was most likely the calf of the other whale. We concluded our trip with a fantastic trip through Race Rocks, where we enjoyed California and Steller sea lions and elephant seals. It was a wonderful afternoon.