February 3, 2010 Hear calls on the hydrophone in Haro Strait and departed the dock at 9am. A research boat spotted along the shoreline in West Haro just 8 miles from Sidney. Several transient pods (included members from T30, T86, T90, T100, T101, T02, and T124's) of mammal eating killer whales were headed south in a quickly with the strong ebb current along Vancouver Island's shoreline.
1:00pm January 27, 2010 Weather was partly cloudy, calm winds and 9 degrees C. We headed out with with a family from Montreal, Canada and two different whale reports. Lone male J1-Ruffles was heading north up Haro Strait. I have never seen him alone.
Last night he was spotted just south of our location making peculiar vocals. Mark Malleson joined the trip and recorded some vocalizations with the hydrophone as the old boy (est. 1951) was quite vocal traveling alone. We managed to spot a few Dall's porpoise in the flat waters and headed for the islands. Comet Island and Brethour Island had their usual bald eagles perched in their preferred tree and several harbour seal were basking on the rocks.
Check out some of 2009's amazing early Spring whale watching trips . We are departing daily at 1pm. April 1-12, 2009 Well the first two weeks of April have been amazing. The weather has been unpredictable but the Transient Orca species have been spotted daily. T14, T11, T30, T49 and T123 pod's have been wreaking havoc on our local marine mammal population. We've seen them hunting harbour seal, harbour porpoise and Stellar sea lion's over the last couple of weeks.
Beside's plenty of Orca around, we've had great Dall's porpoise shows near Swanson Channel. Several dozen are feeding on the heavy tide rip's around Turn Point, just five minutes from our dock. Large Stellar seal lion bull's, elephant seals and hundreds of harbour seals have been spotted on the rocks and in the water.
April 18 We departed Sidney with a report of several blows in the eastern portion of the Strait of Georgia. On route we watched several harbour seals and glaucous winged gulls feeding heavily on the herring rich waters of Boundary Pass. Several Dall's and Harbour porpoise were also spotted in the super smooth waters. We arrived in Boundary Bay to find 5 Grey whale's feeding on the mass amounts of copepods found on the sea floor. These 25-45 foot, up to 40 ton animals were only feeding in 15-30 feet of water.
We also had several Stellar sea lion's on Boiling Reef along with a mature male bald eagle. Harlequin ducks were in great numbers near Monarch head, making a real good comeback to our area.
April 20 Sunshine, flat seas, active Orca and 10 minutes from our dock...what a day. Mark Malleson (aka Mallard & WG1) spotted whales early in the morning sauntering in from the west in the beautifully flat Juan De Fuca strait. Several Orca including T40 (Captain Hook), T90 and T124 pods. We stopped at Kelp Reef for some Stellar Sea lion on the rocks and a pair of Bald eagle on the anemometers. The Orca were northbound in Haro strait in flat seas and started chasing Dall's porpoise off Hughes Passage.
April 25 We departed the dock with sunny skies and light winds. Report of Transient Orca in the Juan De Fuca strait led us south. Along the way near Sidney we encountered a bull Stellar Sea lion tossing around a massive skate on the surface. After a great show we continued south and watched a traveling pod of Transient Orcas identified as T49's We spotted three bald eagles on the way home along with several Pacific harbour seal hauled out at Salas Rocks.
April 26 - May 14 For the last couple of weeks several pod's of Transient Orca and our Resident J pod arrived in our area a week or so ago. From the (photo below right) you can still see the jaundice baby J44 who was first spotted in February. Still lots of Stellar sea lion bulls feeding on skate, octopus and halibut. Dall's and harbour porpoise are showing up in amazing numbers in Boundary pass. Bird's are a plenty. Seems like many more surf scoters in the area then previous years. Bald eagles are pretty much spotted on every trip and the Harlequin duck is making an amazing recovery to the region.
June 1 - 14 June has come and the weather has been unprecedented. Sun has been shining for most of the month and the water teaming with life. We've had the resident pods of J's, L12's and some K members foraging for salmon and transient pods T20's hunting marine mammals in our local waters. The grey's are starting to disappear from the sandy beaches but humpbacks have been spotted the last few days already. Bald eagles are busy perched on tree limbs looking for a meal to bring back to their nests.
Photos and editorial by Jeff Wonnenberg Owner/Operator |
