Saturday, June 14

This morning Captain Brad, naturalists Sean and Corey and an eager group of guests headed east towards San Juan Island in the hopes of finding orca whales. Our tour eventually took us further east into Rosario Strait, as we were hoping to find a group of whales that had headed north towards Vancouver last night. We hoped that we would find them travelling south towards us, and just as we were about to turn around, we received word that some resident orcas had been found a short distance ahead of us. We arrived on scene east of Thatcher Pass and had a wonderful encounter with a large number of these magnificent predators.

For the afternoon trip, the whales were much closer to Victoria, as we encountered the whales offshore of Eagle Point on San Juan Island. It was another amazing encounter with some L-pod whales. Today was this naturalist's first visit with L-pod this year, a fantastic afternoon in calm seas and beautiful blue skies. We visited with several different whales and even saw a couple of breaches. Passengers also saw some fascinating research in action as we watched some scientists following a few whales with net in hand in the hope of finding whale feces or scale samples of fish the whales are preying on. This fascinating research will help scientists determine what salmon runs are vital to the survival of these orcas.

On the evening trip, both our covered vessels, the Pacific Explorer and the Orca Spirit were out at Hein Bank watching members of L-pod. It was a great evening in the calm waters of the Salish Sea as we enjoyed the presence of Mega (L41) and other members of the L-12 matriline. Mega is a spectacular 31 year old male, and it was a pleasure to see him again. We were able to conclude the evening tour with a visit through the Chain Islets to view harbour seals and stopped at Great Chain Island where we watched an eagle causing chaos in the cormorant colony. It was a thrilling end to a wonderful day.