Welcome to our online journal! Here you will discover weekly narratives on the latest from the marine research we fund, the awe-inspiring innovation behind our vessels, the efforts we make to conserve and safeguard our coast, hilarious throwbacks from more than 25-years of history, and awe-inspiring sights from the Strait of Juan De Fuca, Haro Strait, the Strait of Georgia, and Johnstone Strait.
This is your behind-the-scenes, all-access pass to Prince of Whales Whale & Marine Wildlife Adventures!
We are not currently operating tours; we expect to resume on March 1st, 2021. We have a small team working remotely and are happy to answer any inquiries – get in touch!We are fortunate to have shared our 2020 season with wonderful guests and staff. Our team is eternally thankful to our team for maintaining… Read more »
Hey Victoria – The summer is here, and while we all need to be safe and careful, it’s still important to enjoy some outdoor fun in the sun – provided we continue to make the right choices. Prince of Whales, and our amazing neighbours Milestones, have teamed up to provide a great way to spend… Read more »
As June winds down, it’s time start thinking about reflecting on what this month has been like, and as you can imagine, these things can be tough to sum up. This June has exceptional and exceptionally average in a few different ways. What could I possibly mean by that? Well each month has a few… Read more »
This week saw the return of L-pod, hopefully for the long term, which is our largest family in the Southern Resident Killer Whale community. Up until this point we had only seen J-pod, and two brief visits from L-pod last week. And there were members of K-pod mixed in there as well! We don’t have… Read more »
All killer whales, all week again! June is off to a great start with both ecotypes of killer whales making strong appearances, and the odd humpback and Minke whale showing their smiling baleen faces. The residents seem to have started to settle into their favourite summer spots. J-pod were often hanging out by San Juan… Read more »
My apologies for a slight delay in the sightings report this week. Starting now, weekly sighting reports will be sent out on Saturday afternoons. All I can say about this week is wow. The killer whales dominated the waves, with almost equal reports of residents and transients, although there were a couple days spent with… Read more »
The revolving door continued this week with transient orca and humpbacks dominating early on, and residents returning to the area for May long weekend! The same four humpbacks we’ve been seeing lately were enjoying what has become a common feeding spot for them. They are liking the northern end of our range, occasionally meaning that… Read more »
Another solid week in the Salish Sea, this week had a large percentage of single animal sightings; a humpback here, transient male orca there, grey whale over here. Later in the week our favourite humpback, Big Mama, broke the trend and joined up with a lesser known animal, Windy. You might notice some whales have friendly names, while others we just refer to using seemingly random letters and numbers.… Read more »
Man, I swear all the cetaceans in the Salish Sea are in cahoots. It’s like they’re in a revolving door. We just keep seeing different things every day! Residents, transients, humpbacks, residents, humpback, transients, Pacific white-sided dolphins (they showed up randomly on the 28th), transients, residents, humpback, transients. It’s nuts! J-pod left the area on… Read more »
The last couple of weeks have been amazingly steady, especially for April, and things don’t show any signs of slowing down. Our current whale sighting success rate is between 86-92% depending if you look at individual trips, or days. Of course, recent sightings have almost nothing to do with future sightings because things can change… Read more »
What a week it’s been! Ocean Magic II is back on the water, and I’m back doing my First Mate thing! After a few months away seeing what marine life South East Asia has to offer (think manta rays, sea turtles, and more tropical fish than anyone could ever count) I am THRILLED to be… Read more »
The last week and a half has been incredible. J-Pod has been in the area on and off, and there have been tons of Transient Killer Whales around as well! The Ocean Magic II started off whale watching season “officially” on Wednesday, with a visit to see the T36 and T37s just south of Victoria.… Read more »