Well we are all becoming overly familiar with the Canadian waters these days. Reports were in that once again the Orcas were near the coal docks but it was music to our ears to hear they were at least headed south our direction. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride so we didn't mind the extra time it took to reach the whales. The whales were spread out in many small groupings and very active. We saw many breaches and lots of tail slapping. It's always exciting to see but even more so since we had so many people on board that had never seen Orcas in the wild. Unfortunately the angle of the sun was making it extremely difficult to tell exactly who we were with but I'm pretty sure we spotted some J-pod members out there.
Not long after we left the Orcas and headed home we heard a report of a Minke whale. Luckily it was on our way home so we decided to make a quick stop and see if we could spot it. Minke whales are baleen whales meaning they do not have teeth like the Orcas. Like humpback whales they filter feed. Often Minke whales are hard to observe because they can hold their breath for a long time, but fortunately today we got to see this Minke whale 3 times! We were so lucky to have seen two different species whales in one day!
-Casey