MORNING TOURS
Heading south of the Victoria harbour we left with high spirits. The weather was wonderful, and all things pointed towards a wonderful day. We were rewarded early on with a special sighting: just outside of the harbour, a Steller sea lion returned to the surface with its catch! We watched as it thrashed its fish back and forth, breaking it into small enough chunks to swallow. The splashes didn’t just draw our attention, we were amazed to see a sea gull swoop down to try to steal a piece right out of the sea lion’s mouth. An awesome sight to start off the day right!
Continuing on, we made our way further south on to more sightings. Spotting a blow in the distance, we found a humpback whale, making long feeding dives, giving us a great view of its signature hump and beautifully large flukes. A quick stop at Race Rocks to see seals, sea lions, and bald eagles made for a full and awesome morning.
AFTERNOON TOURS
Feeling great after an eventful morning, we set out to see what else we could find and were not disappointed! We spotted a lone humpback early on, once again making deep feeding dives. After enjoying the view, we continued south and were lucky enough to find two more humpbacks. These two were spending more time at the surface, even sticking their pectoral fins out of the water.
We thought we were lucky with that show, but were amazed to see more. Right as we were about to leave, the humpbacks flew out of the water, performing two breaches! We were all amazed by the incredible show. Finally, one individual did a spy-hop, sticking its head out of the water to see us off as we waved goodbye.
A final stop at Race Rocks also didn’t disappoint. A huge crowd of harbour seals were sunning themselves on the rocks, joined by the massive Steller sea lions. We even spotted the resident sea otter, napping gently in the kelp.
With splashes from sea lions in the morning and whales in the afternoon, we had a fantastic day!
