Friday and Saturday we find Transient orcas. The Resident orcas have gone to the west early Thursday morning. Our best guess is that the fish are not too plentiful. But look around! Prey for Transient orca abounds! There are Harbor seals on many rocky reefs basking in the sunshine. Yes, sunshine!! We are excited to be out on the water this glorious weekend. Our trips these two days take us in two completely opposite directions. As Captain Ivan says, "Every day is a new adventure!"
There is a lot of socializing among the youngsters as we arrive off the southern end of Vancouver Island. Here's a young orca rolling into a fluke wave!
This group of 7 Transient orcas milled and traveled around off the city of Victoria all afternoon.
Several times we see small groups of Harbor porpoise surface and we feel sure the orcas will change course and we will witness a kill.
Instead we see spy hops, lunges, tail slaps and traveling behavior!
On Saturday our trip takes us in the complete opposite direction. We travel to the open water off Point Roberts, WA, where we can see the city of Vancouver in the distance. The air is clear, the weather fabulous and warm and the water is flat! Today there are two groups of Transients, crossing back and forth, joining up, and splitting apart. At one time we have Orca whales off either side of the boat! Today is mostly traveling behavior, from what we can tell on the surface. We did see a Harbor seal with a huge skate in it's mouth. Here and there Harbor porpoise bobbed up and down. Another fantastic day on the water, in the company of whales!
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