Humpback and Resident Orca Sightings

Saturday, October 3rd

Our morning tour headed out into Juan de Fuca Strait this morning with high hopes of finding a tremendous diversity of marine wildlife. Early autumn whale watching is always spectacular and this morning would be no different. We stopped near Constance Bank to investigate a huge bait ball and scanned for signs of blows. Within minutes we received a radio report of a humpback whale from a nearby fishermen and went over to investigate. As we arrived on scene, we saw the blow! We had a truly amazing encounter with the humpback whale as we watched it "playing" with a Stellar sea lion. Tail lobbing, back rolling and even a cartwheel or two were among the spectacular behaviours we witnessed. It was one of the most spectacular humpback encounters that I (naturalist Corey) have had. Our tour included a stop at Race Rocks where guests were blown away by the sight (and smelll) of hundreds of sea lions. After a brief encounter with two more humpback whales as we were leaving Race Rocks, we headed for home satisfied after another wonderful trip.

Our afternoon tour started with an encounter with the aforementioned humpback whale literally just minutes outside the harbour. We then travelled east to San Juan Island where we encountered resident orcas off the southern end of the island. We had a great visit with members of J and K pod, including Ruffles (J1), Princess Angeline (J17) and her young calf. What an amazing day!

Here are some of Biologist Corey's photos: