Humpback whales in their glory!

While a heavy fog blanketed the waterways this morning we had our first humpback whale sighting shortly after leaving the dock in Alder Bay. Prior to this we enjoyed a delightful time watching the antics of two juvenile river otters while they played on the dock and in the water at Alder Bay. The two at one point were seen sparring one another playfully with their paws and then one curious otter leaped into the water and we watched in amazement when it surfaced right below where we stood on the dock! The humpback whale when we first sighted it was making its way from the reefs at Gordon Rock (Pearse Passage) into Johnstone Strait and crossing over towards Vancouver Island. After viewing several dive sequences it disappeared into the fog and we lost track of it. We carried on, looking at numerous harbour seals hauled out and in the water, bald eagles, oyster catchers, black turnstones, cassin's and rhinoceros auklets, several gull species and common murres and when we emerged out of the fog into brilliant sunshine in Johnstone Strait we enjoyed viewing dall's porpoises. In Blackfish Sound we suddenly saw the ridge of a humpback whale surfacing and enjoyed its breathtaking beauty. It was a gorgeous day, the scenery as it emerged from the fog drifting in and out of Blackfish Sound, looking back into Johnstone Strait and then later with the Coast Range Mountains clearly defined in the background, was absolutely spectacular! Today's penned comments: We are lucky boys being on this boat. Wanais (4 years). Super fun. Stef (7 years) and Sam (9 years). It's a really beautiful boat with great tea and muffins. We had a lot of fog but have seen two large humpback whales making beautiful dives. We've got lots of information on the fish and the birds and saw bald eagles and nests, river otters, seals porpoises..Thanks for a beautiful trip!                                                                          ~Franke and Niko ~ Belgium