August 30th - Humpbacks, orcas, porpoises, what more could you want?!
Cascadia set off the dock at 10:30am and again at 3:30pm and both tours were extremely successful with finding wildlife! Right off the bat, in Porlier Pass, our boat encountered some elusive harbour porpoises before heading out into the Strait of Georgia for some whales.
Lovely tail slaps. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
A male orca surfaces in gorgeous conditions. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
A juvenile orca does a half breach in front the Greater Vancouver skyline. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Just 15 minutes later we arrived on scene with a huge group of 10-12 killer whales! When multiple groups of transient killer whales travel and socialize together we call it a "T-Party", and this was most certainly a spectacular T-Party!
Big exhales after a dive! Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Splashing around. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
A partial spy hop from a juvenile orca. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Urban whales! Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
The T99's, T101's, and T124's were breaching, hunting, and vocalizing while making their way through the Strait. If the conditions are good and the whales aren't moving too quickly, we can lower a hydrophone into the water to check for any signs of communication between the whales. During this tour, we were so lucky, and we could hear all these whales vocalizing with their array of whistles and clicks!
Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
In the afternoon our boat headed back into the Strait to spend some time with the T101's, some local favourites. It's always incredible to see how tall and straight a bull killer whale's dorsal fin is!
Pretty soon after our orca encounter, humpback whales "Quattro/Heather" and "Raptor" were found. Our boat got to spend some quality time with these whales and were able to see both whales fluke to confirm their identities. Our guests were even lucky (?) enough to see a giant humpback whale poop next to the boat! Hey, it's nature!
Humpback whale poo from Raptor! Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Here are some more of the best photos taken on August 30th by our crew.
Raptor the humpback has a pretty large and unique dorsal fin. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
You can really appreciate the size of a humpback whale from this angle! Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Noticeable scratches also help us to identify individual whales. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Heather/Quattro. Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
FLUUUUUKE! Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Raptor was given its nickname because of the raptor-like claw marks on the right side of its fluke. Can you spot them? Photo by Rodrigo Menezes
Heather/Quattro was given her name because of the H/4 on the top left of her fluke. Here she is fluking after pooping! Notice the red in the water... Photo by Rodrigo Menezes