This morming we left the Victoria Harbour on Five Star Charter's vessel the Fastcat at 1000 and headed into the Strait of Juan De Fuca. On the way south from the Victoria waterfront we had a lovely sighting of sailboats returning to the harbour for the Swiftsure Regatta which started yesterday morning. It was great to see all the boats with their spinnakers and main sails flying!
Swiftsure Reggatta sailboats returning to the harbour
We headed south to Race Rocks Marine Protected Area where we saw 6 Northern Elephant Seals (Mironunga angustirostris), 1 California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus), and a couple of Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus). From Race Rocks we travelled east to an area in the Strait of Juan De Fuca called Constance Bank and within half an hour we'd reached the bank area and met up with one of our 'Resident' fish eating kiler whale pods, J pod (see Center For Whale Research info on the matrilineal groups of the Southern Resident killer whale community). They were travelling slowly eastbound through the strait in tight groups...great for seeing the matrilineal groups travelling together!
J14, Samish, a 35 year old female
J30, Riptide, Samish's 14 year old son
J27, Blackberry, travelling with J22, Oreo's family
J38, Cookie, 6 year old male, his mother J22, Oreo, 24 years old travelling iwth J27, Blackberry
J34, Doublestuff, the 11 year old son of J22, Oreo
Spyhop!
J30, Riptide (14 years old) travelling with his younger sister J37, Tahlequah (8 years old)
J14, Samish trailed by J40, her 5 year old daughter and travelling with J1, Ruffles (estimated to be 58 this year!)
J14, Samish and J1, Ruffles
Above 4 photos: Spyhop series!
After spending a wonderful 45 minutes of watching the members of J pod travelling (with some taillobs and spyhops!) towards San Juan Island, WA in Haro Strait we left them just south of Discovery Island to make our way back to Victoria Harbour.
We were incredibly lucky because we received a report from the Great Pacific Adventures boat that they had spotted a gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) just off the Dallas Road area of Victoria. We reached the beach at Dallas Road at 1255 and were fortunate enough to get a short but great look at it! Shortly after we arrived it went on a long dive we sat idling to see where it would come up next and it surfaced right off our stern and then swam under the boat! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to snap a photo of this great sighting but got one of the whale in the beach with the houses of Victoria in the background!
Gray whale right off the breakwater/Dallas Road of Victoria! (Yes, it looks like a rock sitting off the shoreline)
awesome pictures!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was a great day on the water!
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