Ocean Magic Adventure Sept 8 3:30

Today's Ocean Magic 3:30 trip found us only minutes from the Victoria inner harbour. Turns out that members of L & K pod were on the move across the waterfront eastbound towards San Juan Island. At first they were very spread apart, but did group up and started traveling quickly speed porpoising out of the water, it was an awesome sight! Big males porpoising out of the water together is such a momentous encounter. The animals crossed Victoria and continued past Discovery Island. Some breaches were seen by 1 big male (see photos) as well as more awesome group porpoising including one little wee one who would pop out of the water on their own (see video).

While repositioning the vessel, we stopped to look at a Stellar sealion who was busy feeding on some fish, and would also fling the fish around and tease the seagulls. We then caught up for another look at the last group of traveling killer whales, there were many whales in the area. After having a wonderful time with the killer whales, we ventured south west into the strait in search of humpbacks! Low and behold we found my favorite humpback whale (known as Bart who has a split fin) who was probably with his mother together lounging about. It's amazing for me to see my favorite baleen cetacean and to know that he has returned again - this will be his 4th year in our area. Awesome trip!

Ocean Magic Wildlife Adventure Aug 4 3:30pm

Hello all. Well it's been a while since I have been out on the water as I was away in Mexico. Finally, I was able to get out on the boat and see some of the orcas! On the 3:30 Ocean Magic trip we observed members of Lpod in Juan de Fuca / Haro Straits - where the two converge. Earlier that day they had been spread apart foraging off San Juan Island. We heard that all 3 pods were together but we spent our time watching some of Lpod. It's always easy for us to first ID the large males - L41 and L74 who were busy chasing Salmon impressing our passengers. We also observed mother and calf pairs (need still to ID) breaching and porpoising about. There was no shortage of orca activity out there; speed porpoising, tail slapping, spy hopping and many breaches in all directions. As the animals were spread far apart, it was difficult to catch all the breaches as some of them were overlapping far and close by. I did manage to get some images of it for your viewing pleasure. On the way home we stopped to look at the harbour seals hauled out on the rocks of the Trial Island lighthouse. Thanks to the stellar all girl crew today; Captain Anna, Naturalist Mika, Naturalist Liz and Naturalist McKyla. Please enjoy the photos and video in the post.

Please note for your viewing variety, photos are generally shot with a 400 mm telephoto lens and the video is usually shot in wider angle and shows a different perspective.

Also, keep your eye on the Prince of Whales website, the new site is almost complete!. Should be live in the next 2 weeks. It's an exciting change!

Transients & Humpbacks, Ocean Magic Adventures

(Transient orcas)


(humpback whales)


(photoset of both tours)

On the 12:15 Ocean Magic Adventure, we certainly didn't go far from home. After departing the Victoria inner harbour, we located 4 transient killer whales (meat eating orcas) milling and feeding in the Juan de Fuca Strait. Naturalist Mika identified them as T18, T19, T19b and T19c. The animals were active in a variety of areas of the Victoria waterfront about 2-4 miles south, and seagulls seemed to be hot on their trails so they were clearly feeding on something, either seals, sealions or porpoises. The hunts occurred under water so we could not see what they were. We saw a few spyhops from the group within their feeding or social behavior. Not far from them were 2 humpbacks hanging out. They were not really in any hurry to get anywhere and stuck together in a pair often giving passengers a lovely glimpse of their backs and tails in together. After this we stopped by the amazing Race Rocks to observe the incredible groupings of Stellar and California sealions. One never forgets the smell this time of year. We also encountered dome Dalls porpoise on our trip. They are a small cetacean with a white dorsal fin.

During the 3:30 adventure tour, we found the transients traveling along the Victoria shoreline, past Trial Island and close to the Oak Bay gulf course. Take a look at the photos and you will see a man down on the rocks trying to interact with the animals, who by the way just ignored him while making their way over to Oak Bay marina. After we caught up again with the two humpbacks who were still in in the Juan de Fuca. After this we took another spin past the Race Rocks ecological reserve. Check out the photos for images of that. It was a beautiful summer day, flat calm seas, blue skies and warm temperatures.

I have cut two videos here which involve both the 12:15 and the 3:30 ocean magic adventure trips together. They are divided into the various cetaceans; orcas & humpbacks. Enjoy.

Zen like Orcas, Ocean Magic 3:30

Is it me, or is there a lot of "belly floppin" going on these days? On the 3:30 Ocean Magic Adventure, we (Captain Anna and our awesome all girl crew with passengers) found ourselves in flat calm seas... It was so quiet we could hear the echo of the orca's breath across the water, and unforgettable sound. We began around Henry Island as L pod was heading southbound. They were very spread apart mainly traveling but as you can see some belly flops along the way. The animals were seen heading south towards Lime Kiln park where as usual, an anxious fan crowd awaited them. Animals were spread right out into the middle of Haro Strait. It was a very ZEN like trip this evening. The big male seen in these images and video is L85 who was born in 1991 making him about 19 years of age...

Vancouver Adventure Crossing, Transients and Residents

View the whole orca set here














On route from the Prince of Whales Vancouver Adventure crossing on the Ocean Magic, we found a group of about 6 or 7 transients (at about 11:15 am), some of those animals are identified as T102 and T101A and were on the northwest side of Galiano Island. When we arrived they had recently made 2 kills and were now in typical traveling behavior. The lighting was incredible which gave us amazing viewing and photograph opportunities.

On route back to Victoria, we found Lpod who had been making their way in from the west and were about 1 mile south of Discovery spread apart heading east to San Juan Island. When we found them they were in groups which sometimes moved closer together and wider apart. Breaching, spyhops, pec slapping were among some of the behaviors. They swam closely along side of a large freighter at times broadcasting behaviors such as breaching, pec slapping, tail slapping very close to the ship.


View the entire crossing slide show here

J's,K's, Ocean Magic Adventure 3:30, July 23

Arleigh explains foraging behavior while we're waiting for the animals to surface






On our 3:30 Ocean Magic Adventure trip, I heard that all three pods (although didn't see any L's so not sure about them) were in the area today. When we arrived, the pods were spread far apart up and down the shoreline of San Juan Island hunting, feeding and traveling. We started viewing K pod, a small group including K21 Cappuccino were traveling southbound north of Lime Kiln close to the shoreline. K's and some J's I believe passed VERY close to the shoreline off Lime Kiln park giving the many spectators onshore a front row, 5 star view of the animals. Based off what I saw through my lens, the orcas passing by would have been just a few feet from the shore where people were located. I saw a variety of behaviors today; breaching, pec slapping, speed porpoising, tail slapping, foraging and traveling.

Through my lens I was lucky enough to capture 1 small animal breach and also managed to catch the end of another breach not far off from Lime Kiln... Further on, one lone spectator on shore was witness to a pec slap, or was the orca waving at him?. Because of our restrictions around the animals, we remained about a mile offshore. At the end of our trip, we saw 1 large male (I am not exactly sure who it was, I have looked at the ID chart and do not want to guess as there are several who look alike) speed porpoising south. Because the orcas were so close to shore today, and we were quite far back, it was a bit difficult to tell you who we were looking at exactly. None the less, it's always a beautiful experience to be out there, in the presence of such magnificent animals.

Kpod, Ocean Magic Adventure, July 22

On todays Ocean Magic 3:30pm trip we found ourselves observing Kpod accompanied by L87 I believe... Hmmm perhaps he's interested in someone? The group was spread out foraging. Passengers were introduced to Cappuccino K21 (a large male) in hunting behavior, his directions were constantly in shift, clearly in search of Salmon. Most of the animals were located closer to San Juan Island, we remained a few miles offshore observing him and a mother and calf pair (will ID and fill in the animal name here)

On route back to Victoria, we stopped at the Chain Islands in Oak Bay to view the sea birds (mainly gulls and cormorants) as well as the mother and pup harbour seals laying out on the rocks. Also managed to get a photo of our awesome all woman crew today; Arleigh, Marnie, Mika, and Captain Anna. It's always a great experience out with them.

Ocean Magic, Superpod, July 15

I believe this is Skana L79 who surprised us. He's done this before, he's a rather sneeky big guy sometimes lol












On our 3:30pm Ocean Magic Adventure, all 3 pods came together at the bottom of Lopez Island ( I think it was) and were making their way back over to San Juan Island from Rosario Strait. The animals were quite active, breaching, tail lobbing, and speed porpoising. They were traveling spread out and in groups. We were quite surprised while watching one group, just when we saw they were headed our way Captain Anna started to move the vessel out of the way when passengers were treated to a very unexpected visitor! See the video at the top of the post for that moment. Passengers were treated to lovely views of many of the large males (K21, L41, L79, L78) including everyones favorite Ruffles J1. Thanks to all the great crew and captain Anna Hall (today an all women team) for a perfect trip!

Below is a crop of the scarring on L78's fin, because I know some people are interested to have a better look.



FYI, I will be blogging two Victoria Ocean Magic trips a week; Wed and Thursday 3:30 pm. Also look out for some of the Vancouver crossing, Butchart Gardens and Vancouver & Victoria Zodiac trips to be blogged by me this summer!