(complimentary gift image - click to enlarge, right click to download)
Today's ocean was dramatic, maybe 6 footers out there, lots of wind and incredible seas, like a roller coaster but better!. That means incredible whales too! 4 humpbacks were off Constance Bank (Juan de Fuca Strait) and were VERY active when we arrived on scene. Breaching, flipper slaps, tail lunges, some surface feeding and high powered fluke-ing. WOW it was so exciting! I recognized two of the humpbacks from previous trips and years and will return here later with their ID's. One of them I have nick named "notchella" she has the split dorsal fin and was seen breaching many times earlier this season.
We headed further south and found 3 transients; T020 (male with a research tag on his fin) and T021 (female) and another male T031 (thanks to Jared Towers for confirming these guys) at about 5 pm. They were heading east of Beecher Bay - south of Victoria's breakwater. The animals were traveling however showed some symptoms of having fed (gulls hovering close above). The animals were an impressive size and gave us lovely views. After, we took a quick spin through Race Rocks to see the many sealions hauled out before returning back to the Victoria waterfront where several humpbacks were milling (most likely the same ones we saw earlier). We managed to see another breach! And a total surprise was that our transient killer whale friends had also headed closer to shore, so we caught up to them as well (about a mile off of the breakwater at 6:30 pm). We were just a few miles off Victoria's water front today and what an experience for all! Because of the rough conditions today, I did not record any video.
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