Just when we thought it could not get any better it did! Today's viewing has to be one of the best of the entire season. Heading out on tour this morning the fog was beginning to clear in Johnstone Strait and yet our first glimpse of an orca took everyone onboard by surprise including crew when the fin of A33 suddenly rose up through the water and out of the fog near to the boat. With the engine cut, passengers sat and watched as A33 continued on to the west, foraging as he went. The hydrophone was deployed and the wonderful A-Clan calls of the A12 matriline were heard, and beautifully so, and with the fog clearing rapidly, other orcas could then be seen further down Johnstone Strait and slowly making their way towards the west. As it turned out, the orcas passed by very near to the boat, and then turning back and forth as they foraged at Turn Point, some swimming under and alongside of the boat. The viewing was superb and left everyone on board smiling! A humpback whale was sighted across Johnstone Strait at Blinkhorn at the time of our orca encounter. Leaving the area, we headed into Weynton Passage where passengers observed the antics of numerous stellar sea lions 30 + hauled out and many, many more who were in the water swimming and fishing. A humpback whale was sighted near Stubbs Island, it was feeding in the flood current; in total there were 5 humpback whales in the area, some could be seen off in the distance and one was sighted on the way home near the Pearse Islands. It was a purely magical and remarkable tour for all onboard. Other sightings today were: harbour seals, sooty shearwaters +++, common mergansers flying south in small flocks of 20 or less, common murres,, red-necked phalaropes, rhinoceros auklets,, bald eagles, cassin’s auklets,, california gulls, glaucous-winged and bonaparte’s gulls.