Thursday, August 9

This morning we went south out of the harbour in search of Gray Whales. Gray Whales are bottom feeders and are often found close to the shoreline where the water is shallow so that they can stir up the sediment and feed. We went along the shoreline of Washington State just east of Port Angeles and found a Gray Whale happily feeding in the area. After some nice views of the whale we stopped by Race Rocks where a number of sea lions, both Stellar and California were hauled out on the rocks.

For the afternoon trip we went west where we discovered a Humpback feeding in the water column. We had some fantastic views of the whale’s fluke as he dove down for some deeper dives.

For our final trip of the day we found the Humpback very close to the Victoria Harbour. After some more fantastic passes by the whale we went over to Whirl Bay where we saw a Turkey Vulture flying overhead, a Bald Eagle nest and a number of Fork-tailed Storm Petrels. We finished our evening with a little taste of Bull Kelp, a seaweed that is very common in the area.