Wednesday, August 29

We started our morning trip by heading out West from Victoria harbour towards San Juan Island, with the hope of finding the resident orcas who had been in the area the day before. On the way we stopped off at the Chain Islands to view the harbour seals, basking in the lovely morning sunshine. As we moved away and headed out by Discovery Island, the call came in that the resident orcas had been spotted just south of the harbour! After a swift U-turn by John, we were soon speeding back towards the harbour. We found the orcas just a few kilometres south-west of Victoria and were ecstatic to see that it was a superpod, when all three of the resident pods mix together! There were whales all around with several small groups spyhopping, breaching and tail slapping. With the engine turned off the whales were getting closer to the boat and we were rewarded with a close up view of Ruffles, the adult male from J Pod who has a very distinctive dorsal fin, not surprisingly it has a ruffle in it (see photo below)! The hydrophone was picking up lots of vocalisation from the groups. As the pods continued to swim east up the Juan de Fuca Strait, we eventually broke away and headed west towards Race Rocks. We had great views of the California and Steller Sea Lions as well as more harbour seals - you've guessed it - sunbathing! The sea lions were more active, with several male Steller sea lions jostling for position on the rocks and the Californian seal lions barking loudly.

In the afternoon, we headed out east from the harbour, this time knowing that the resident orcas were in the area. We soon caught up the superpod again feeding off Pile Point at the south-west tip of San Juan Island. This is a favourite feeding spot for the residents, hunting for salmon. Once again we were surrounded by orcas and it was difficult to know in which direction to look. With the engines turned off, several orcas were swimming close to the boat including an adult male from L pod, known as Gaia or L78. Everyone was impressed with his 6 foot high dorsal fin within metres of the boat. Another individual gave a great display of their white underside when they rolled over on their back just off the end of the boat. The hydrophone was once again buzzing with the vocalisations from the whales all around. But alas, it was soon time to return to harbour so we left the whales still feeding and returned to Victoria. On the way back we stopped off at the Chain Islands where we spotted cormorants and a great blue heron and yes, the harbour seal were still sunbathing!