2012 June 4 | The Captain's Whale Blog!

Humpback Whale at Constance Bank !!!

No morning tour today, so the first tour of the day was the 2:30 pm “Goldwing” trip which started out at Trial Island with 2 Bald Eagles and lots of Harbour Seals. From Trial we ventured over to Chatham and Discovery Island where we went through Strongtide Channel and saw lots of bright purple Sea Stars (Ochre Stars) on the lower rocks, one Great Blue Heron up in the nest and dozens of Canada Geese all throughout !!! Afterwards we went through the Chain Islands where we encountered more Seals, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots and Harlequin Ducks. Next stop – Constance Bank for a Humpback Whale !!!! Upon arriving on scene at Constance Bank, we noticed a small Humpback Whale identified as BCZ 0298 (Split fin) traveling slowly to the West. Split fin is a 6 year old animal that was born to BCY 0324 back in 2006. We have been lucky enough to see this animal every year here in Victoria !!! After 35 minutes of great viewing with Split fin, we continued South and West towards Race Rocks Lighthouse to see all the California and Steller Sea Lions. We were treated to seeing a large male Elephant Seal in the water right next to the dock as well He seemed to be blowing bubbles in the water… just like a little kid in the bath tub. From Race Rocks we went over to Whirl Bay and Becher Bay where we saw more Bald Eagles and 2 active Eagle’s nests. As we were traveling past Church Rk. we noticed a few Turkey Vultures soaring high above the cliffs. Conditions on the ocean today were cold and cloudy skies. However, the seas were flat calm !!!