Wow. Whales! All the whales! We almost reached the point today where there were more whales than we know what to do with! Things got started with transient killer whales waaay out west. Like, about as far as we can go in three hours…and then a little bit more. Mark took his passengers to Point No Point and beyond (yes, that’s really… Read more »
Today we had whales to the south, and whales to the north. This divided up the whale watching industry, with the Vancouver boats and Americans stay north, and the Victoria fleet going south. Both north and south though, the whales were the same: humpbacks! Between late August and early October is the best time to see humpbacks, and today they did not disappoint. There were two animals reported… Read more »
Residents and transients and humpbacks, oh my! We started out the morning with our residents taking off to the west. Mark caught up with L-pod as they were leaving on his first trip, but luckily we picked up some transients later in the day, so it was killer whales all around! Ocean Magic had a lovely crossing from Vancouver spying three bald eagles and lots of harbour seals near… Read more »
A question I get probably every tour (along with “how deep is the water here?” because for some reason everyone is fascinated by depth…) is “So, do you ever come out and not see whales?” Yes. Of course! These are wild animals we’re talking about, and an absolute reality of working with wild animals is… Read more »
I love my job. But days like today make me surprised that I get paid. Incredible. More eerily flat calm conditions permeated the straits today, which makes spotting much easier. Plus summer is making a comeback, with sunshine forecast for the next week solid! It was Gavin, Sandy, and Wilma who brought Ocean Magic over on the Ultimate Day Tour this morning. As they transited Georgia Strait passengers were lucky enough to site some elusive harbour porpoise,… Read more »
Wow, what a day on the water. And not just compared of the torrential rain yesterday! Today was truly spectacular in its own right. All the notes the drivers left for me included a variation on Torin’s phrase “Beauty day!” I try to stay away from using words like “cooperative” and “putting on a show”… Read more »
We ran the whole gamut of possible weather today; just a little bit of everything the west coast has to offer! While the rain doesn’t stop us, lightning sure will, so unfortunately the conditions did not allow us to go out past 3:30, but we got in a solid, and spectacular day of whale watching before that happened. On the Vancouver side of things, Captian Anthony, First Mate Sandy, and Naturalist Wilma,… Read more »
Setting out in the morning with no reports of whales, and no resident orca in the area, can be a scary thing. People’s faces often drop when I tell them we we’re going to look for whales, but the reality is, we’re ALWAYS looking for whales! And we find them. A lot. Today we decided to go west in the morning, and quickly caught up with… Read more »
Today was a perfect example of why we go out in the fog. I know you think we’re crazy people, bombing around in limited visibility, but we had two zodiac drivers come in today and write essentially the same thing on the trip summary sheets they fill out at the end of the day. Casey wrote “Have faith!!! Socked in fog trip turned… Read more »
Today the weather felt like April, but the whales felt like July! Things started out with a definite nip in the air this morning, but passengers’ hearts were warmed immediately after spotting a close knit family of K-pod travelling together off shore of San Juan Island. Ocean Magic II was the first boat on scene this morning as we worked with another company to fan out and search the west side… Read more »