This afternoon Five Star Charter's Fastcat departed at 1400 from the Victoria Harbour and into the Strait of Juan De Fuca. We travelled east across the Victoria waterfront stopping first at the Chain Islands off of Oak Bay were we there was a Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sitting on the Double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) nests at Great Chain and many harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) in the kelp and hauled out on the rocks.
From the Chain Islands we continued on past Seabird Pt at the south end of Discovery Island and Beaumont Shoals (where we spotted a few harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena) and then on to San Juan Island, Washington. We arrived at the west side of San Juan Island at around 1500 and soon spotted some killer whales (Orcinus orca) travelling slowly just offshore. After looking at some of the individuals in the group I was able to identify members from both J and K pods (Center For Whale Research ID pages). During our sighting J and K pods travelled north and even did some breaches and spyhops for us! We left them at Henry Island just north of San Juan Island still making their way north at around 1600.
Harbour seal in the bull kelp at Chain Islands
Breach!
Breach splash!
J16, Slick, a ~37 year old female and her youngest J42, Echo (2 years old)
J26, Mike, an 18 year old male
Spyhop!
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