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Travelling to and tracking down the group of Orca Whales – or is that a ’school’ of Whales? – made for a great day out. But as you can see from the picture, they are usually too quick to come up and go down again before the shutter gets pressed!
We were on the boat a total of six hours from leaving and returning to the harbour at Richmond. On the way we encountered Bald Headed Eagles, Californian Sea Lions and had some great fun when a small group of Porpoises – or is that a ’school’ of Porpoises – played alongside the boat and ran with us for a short while.
Even without the wildlife, weaving through the beautiful islands off the Canadian coast was a great pleasure in itself. Seeing the Whales was just icing on the cake.
It amazes me that the ’specialist’ on board can name some of them and that they are tracked assiduously – each siting is recorded along with the time, date and co-ordinates and even the porpoises were entered into the official record. And up top in the wheelhouse, the captain keeps his eyes peeled for the telltale signs and showed immense patience in trying to get us into the best positions to view the whales as they played around us.
A great day and seriously recommended for anyone visiting these shores.
That sounds great, Andy! I’ve never been to the western side of Canada, but we did see a few kinds of whales (not orcas though) when I went to Oregon & Washington.
I LOVE sea lions – never get tired of seeing them! They’re pretty noisy too!
And dolphins/porpoises are great fun when they’re swimming with the boats!
Glad you got to see so much! When do you head home?
Last day in Vancouver today. Tomorrow back to las Vegas and then Friday back to England. It’s been a great 2 weeks.
By the way, the Orca’s we saw were actually off the Washington coast. We travelled some 6o miles down coast to see them.
I remember playing the now you see them/now you don’t game trying to snap pictures of dolphins… found out a short while after that if you fit a polarising filter on your camera, you can take pictures of them down to a couple of metres under the water in good light; always good to know too late
(and I’m pretty sure it’s a pod of whales…)
Yes a polariser would have been useful and had it been my old Contax I would have had one in the bag! The move to a Canon digital with a different size screw thread menat they were left behind and not yet replaced with new ones.
‘Pod’! Yes – sounds about right doesn’t it!
Did anyone see the film reno 911? Now that is how you deal with a whale stranded on the beach.!!
@Joseph Fritzel: Not me. Have not come across it either….