Morning Tours
A peaceful calm morning was a precursor to a magical day of tours. We exited the harbour moving southwest. With rumours of whales parallel to Becher Bay, we stayed true to our initial path of travel and rounded William Head. It paid off and we were soon observing Bigg’s Transient Killer Whales in their natural habitat. We were lucky enough to have come across two families of Killer Whales, the T37As & T37Bs, travelling together, two sisters and their offspring.
The most vivacious of all of the group was the youngest in the pod, a spritely 2-month-old calf, which kept on breaching out of the water. The animals were heading east towards the shore so we decided to leave them to their mission and continue our search southwards. Our fortune continued, and we spotted not one but four Humpback Whales! Not to mention the sea conditions were calm and the sun was beaming down on us, so it made spotting the animals off in the distance a dream. Two of them were travelling pretty close together and the other two spread out. It was tranquil to hear all the large Humpback Whales surface and exhale, in addition to the fluking events that happened periodically. When it was time to head back to Victoria, smiles were visible all around after seeing two families of Transient Killer whales and four individual Humpback Whales.
Afternoon Tours
Using the positive whale energy we soaked up in the morning, we set sail on the Marauder IV with high hopes. The buzz around the harbour was that the two families of Transient Killer whales, the T37As & T37Bs, were heading east towards the harbour entrance. We managed to get out into the Salish Sea before the whales snuck in but they were close, just along the south coast of Esquimalt. Keeping our distance we observed these travelling families with baited breath as they crossed the harbour entrance. Phew! They stuck to their easterly direction of travel and hugged the Ogden point breakwater. Then something very special happened; after travelling under water for a considerable amount of time, the group popped up, heading straight for our boat. At last surface viewing we were considerably south of the pod, by at least 350 yards. It was a magical moment that was unexpected and humbled everyone on board. We decided to leave the families alone to continue their journey, very grateful for their presence.
We moved south and were greeted by a Humpback Whale, another species! Watching the whales feeding and breathing was mesmerizing and was topped off by spotting another in the distance. Two Humpback Whales and a third was spotted on our way back to Victoria! Whales were everywhere to be seen today, it was whale soup out there!
Click here to check out a video of the Killer Whales on the afternoon tour!