Ocean Magic: Porpoises, Humpbacks, Sealions

Today's trip was very interesting! We headed out in a typical overcast day to find a very large school of harbour porpoises milling in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This was exciting for me as I had not seen any all year, and especially for Captain Anna Hall who is studying these little cetaceans. See video above for that. Not far from this large school were 2 humpbacks. When we first arrived, we found what we thought was "Heather" (will provide the number soon) with "Bart" traveling rather quickly. Heather was logging while traveling, so she swam quite a distance not fluking or diving but keeping her dorsal fin exposed the whole time. They were joined by a curious sealion who also checked us out (see photos). When the animals were together there was lots of activity; head stands, fluking, pec slapping, rolling, etc. At one point the animals past our stern and breached 2 times! The first one is "Bart" the second one I think could be "Heather". At one point we witnessed Bart swimming backwards when playing with the sealion! After an incredible viewing of the humpbacks, we checked out our favorite ecological reserve; Race Rocks. Many of the pinnipeds were hauled out on the rocks. The growling Stellars and the barking Californians. Today's trip left a perma grin on everyone's faces!