2012 May 23 | The Captain's Whale Blog!

Wednesday May 23, 2012 2:30 pm Trip

The afternoon tour started out in Oak Bay as we toured the Chain Islands. We had great views of Harbour Seals, Pelagic Cormorants, Harlequin Ducks and Pigeon Guillemots. From Oak Bay we traveled North into Haro Strait where we came across some very curious and playful Harbour Porpoise at Kelp Reef Light. We spent close to ten minutes with the engines off as these “World’s Greatest Small Cetaceans” played all around our vessel Afterwards we continued North up past Turn Point where we encountered our first Killer Whales !!! J2 (Granny) and J8 (Spieden) were the first whales to round the corner at Turn Point. We slowly ventured Northeast into Boundary Channel to pick up a really nice group of animals ID’d as the J16′s (Slick, Mike, Alki and Echo). This family group of four whales were traveling all by themselves as they swam towards Turn Point. Just behind the J16′s we found the main body of J-pod !!! Group B (J-pod) – 13 whales all grouped tightly together were bringing up the rear. Group B’s include the J11′s, J22′s and the J17′s along with J32. Great day on the water as we followed the whales South to Mandarte Island