A "grayt" whale of a day
Friday April 11th, 2008

For the first time this season we had two boats head out on a 9am trip from Victoria. It was the first trip of the season for 'MV Orca Spirit', with Captain John at the helm and marine naturalists Sheenah and Chelsea aboard. 'MV Pacific Explorer' was captained by Brad with marine naturalists Cheri and Tim also aboard. So with full crew and full passengers we headed out to the calm waters of the Salish Sea, not knowing what the trip would bring us. We headed east to Trial Island where we observed several Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks and a few playing around in the water. We were also were able to see a lone Bald Eagle perched up on a sign pole. We then proceeded to head in a south-westerly direction towards Constance Bank, with water conditions perfect for spotting whales. Once out into the Strait of Juan De Fuca we headed inshore to Beecher Bay. As we looped around the small island in the middle of the bay, with the water looking like glass, beautiful coastline and spectacular Olympic mountain ranges in the background, it really did look like a scene from a postcard. Very picturesque to say the least! As we headed back east to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve we hear the scream "whale!". As I looked inshore to confirm the sighting, we had indeed come across a gray whale, slowly making it's way along the coastline, westbound towards the Pacific. Being the only boats out on the water we were able to observe this gray whale forage and even show off it's tail-fluke for all to see. With the passengers on a high we proceeded to head to Race Rocks where we observed more than 10 male Stellar Sea Lions, a couple of Californian Sea Lions, a couple of Elephant Seals, and several Harbor Seals all hauled out on the same rock. Four species of pinniped on one rock, you can't get much more diverse than that! So with crew and passengers witnessing some spectacular marine life off this "species rich" southern coast of Vancouver Island, all in all it was a great trip.

(written by Tim, marine naturalist)