Today was an exciting time on the water with Five Star Whale Watching. We left Victoria Harbour in the afternoon and caught up with L pod in strong winds near San Juan Island. The whales breached and started to lunge right out of the water after fish. Flash, L73, and the L9 matriline passed near the boat. Their saddles, patch behind dorsal fin, were striking white against their slick black bodies. We then dropped the hydrophone, underwater microphone, into the water to listen to them echolocate, use sonar, to locate fish as the pod foraged in small groups. When it was time to turn back a mother and her calf passed by in the beautifully glistening sunset. Thank you 5 Star for a wonderful day out on the water!

Today we followed transient, marine mammal hunting, killer whales along the southeast side of Southern Vancouver Island. It turned out to be the T41 group, which has increased in size now including a couple of youngsters. As we arrived on scene we found the whales all around a whale-watch boat as the whales attempted to hunt down a seal. They put on quite a show breaching and tail slapping all around the vessel. The whales then continued travelling south close to shore near Gordon Head. The fog then rolled in from the south as the weather dropped and the wind picked up. A couple of seals off 10 Mile Point grouped up in the water offshore. The look in their eyes was pure terror as the whales passed about 500 meters away off the point. We kept up with the T41 group until we reached Gonzales Point where we made an acoustic recording.

DFO LAUNCHES DRAFT RECOVERY STRATEGY TO PROTECT BLUE, FIN AND SEI WHALES IN CANADA'S PACIFIC WATERS

There were reports this morning (July 30) of killer whales at Point Roberts so we headed out north only to be caught in fog so we turned back towards Race Rocks in hopes to finds whales out there. Upon arrival we found a few whale watchers with a couple of humpback whales. It was a sunny and breezy afternoon as we stayed with these whales most of the day while patrolling the ecological reserve.