A Coastal Kaleidoscope
What started out as a foggy, cool day graciously transformed into a gorgeously sunny one, with brilliant blue seas and clear summer skies. Aboard the MV Seasmoke, guests today experienced a coastal kaleidoscope of islands and seas, whales and wildlife, sunshine and fog.
A spectacular highlight this morning was seeing a humpback whale appear in the fog, and then, just thirty seconds later, watching as it breached. What a thrilling surprise! Later, we saw another active humpback whale breach three times. Although humpbacks are among the largest whales in the world, they are very acrobatic and are able to thrust their entire bodies up and out of the water. Breaches range from a partial to a complete which is followed by the whale landing, usually on its back, creating a huge splash.
Another amazing highlight was sitting in the rip at Cracroft Point with the engines off, completely surrounded by northern resident orcas, likely including the A54s, A30s, I4s, A23s, A25, and the I65s. Everywhere we looked, we could see them!
Bait balls are bringing in seabirds by the hundreds, including common murre, red-necked phalaropes and rhinoceros auklets. The sounds of the birds above the bait balls, the blows of the whales and the water gently hitting our boat was the soundtrack of the day. We also saw lots of harbour seal pups sunning themselves, as well as a sea lion, several eagles and Dall’s porpoises throughout our journey in the stunning and wildlife rich Pacific Northwest.
