I was out with Ocean Ecoventures, with the wonderful Gary Sutton, on a tour where we went up into the Gulf Islands. After encountering several Bigg’s killer whale groups in the Strait of Georgia, as we were heading back towards Cowichan Bay, before coming back to the Gulf Islands, we were just off the pass between Pylades and Galiano Island. That’s where Gary spotted some porpoises and slowed down. Our boat pretty quickly seemed to be surrounded by quite a number of porpoises! The estimate was between 20 and 50! It was difficult to ascertain, as you can imagine, because they come up so quickly. But because of the absolutely glassy sea and very low wind, their blows could be heard all around us! It was so incredible!
I took several videos and calculate the encounter lasting for something like 8-9 minutes. We hadn’t lowered the hydrophone, but I bet it would have been quite noisy with their calls. It would appear they had found some food, but we weren’t able to see their prey. There also weren’t many birds around. Assuming that birds will take notice of a bait ball, even with porpoises? Though they’re of course quire stealthy, so maybe no?
We noticed little “oil slicks” close to the boat, deducing they likely came up to check us out. So adorable to think!
Even though we saw quite a few killer whales on this tour, hands down this was the absolute highlight of this tour for me! I absolutely can’t wait to come back to B.C. (I live in The Netherlands), to go on more whale watching tours again.
I also went out with Eagle Wing out of Victoria twice on that trip, my first trip to B.C. On the first tour with Eagle Wing, I spotted porpoises in passing, as we were headed out to a sighting report of a killer whale. I remember seeing something splashing out of the corner of my eye and saw a porpoise jump out of the water. This was out on the water between Victoria Harbour and the orca sighting location in the Strait of Juan de Fuca❤️
On that tour I also saw my first humpback whales, which were feeding! There were birds overhead, also going in to catch fish and we for sure saw lunge feeding! One whale thankfully properly showed us their flukes, allowing us to identify it as Hammer! So neat to have had a positive ID!
-Bas
Leave a Reply