Thursday, October 25

As we headed out of Victoria in a Southerly direction the sea was flat calm so we had a good chance of spotting whales that might be in the area. We were going out to the region where we had recently been spotting humpbacks. A passenger in the boat spotted some fins and a check with Brad, the skipper, confirmed that we had Orcas. When we stopped the boat we realised just how many, they were all around us! We were in the middle of a wide-spread group, which appeared to contain individuals from J and L pod. We saw juveniles in the group, some tail slapping and a spy hop. There was also a group of Stellar sea lions in the midst of it all, getting involved with one of the groups of Orcas, and it looked like there was a bit of playful interaction between them from all the splashing at the surface (luckily it was residents we were watching and not Sea lion eating residents - it might have been a different story!). We received a report of humpbacks and so headed out further in to the Strait, where we found 3 humpbacks, surfacing together. We had good views of almost the whole length of the whales, from the bumps on their heads to the undersides of the flukes. WE had a chance for a quick visit to Race Rocks, with only a few seals and sea lions hauled out, but with the sun out shining, flat seas and 2 species of whales in one 3 hour trip, everyone commented on what a great day they had.