Orcas in Haro Strait

Today’s tour was with a group of four, and one who’s life dream was to see Orca. She had been following my photo blog for some time and planned her trip with friends.

Today’s weather was questionable, and I checked to see if they were able to go out tomorrow instead. My guests were not able to go the next day, so I took a close look and knew where I would not be going. Orca had been located way out west, but the weather would have been brutal. I knew we had a pair of Humpback Whales within the islands, so that was my plan.

I took us up to Spieden Island where we saw some Steller Sea Lions playing in the water. It is incredible to me how these big brutes can be so testy with each other onshore but put them in the water, and they are 2500lb playmates.

We saw the exotics of Spieden including the Mouflon Sheep, including an older Ram, Fallow Deer, and Sika Deer. I noticed a pair of Black Oystercatchers on the rocks. One of them, the juvenile with the black-tipped beak, has one of its toes missing.

Then I spotted a Bald Eagle and shared my stories about them while capturing a couple of shots. Then it was a short distance out to see the Humpback Whales. However, a call came over the radio that the T18’s pod of Orca had were seen. They were only about two and a half miles away. So, change of plan and we headed straight for the Orca pod.

We met up with them at Mandarti and Halibut islands on the Canadian side of the strait. We were seeing them all grouped up, but as soon as we headed further into the strait they split up with T19B, a large male with a curved dorsal fin kept surfacing near us while the rest of the pod moved further out. T19B is also known by the name of Galiano. The others were T18 the matriarch, T19, and T19C another big male.

After viewing the Orca for a while, we started back to see the Humpback we had passed up earlier. On the way, I spotted some commotion going on and turned to see what it was. A Steller Sea Lion was feasting on what I thought was a pink salmon. Now that I am at home and looking at my pics, I now see that it was not a salmon, I am not sure if it was an octopus, a skate, the guts from an orca kill of a seal or porpoise or something else entirely. Now I wish I would have stayed longer to get some better shots.

Then off to the Humpback and we also checked out a bait ball of herring that was three or four feet in diameter. Another was forming on the surface in the humpbacks path, but he turned around and headed the other way missing out on the bait ball entirely.