First Tour of the season with Resident Orca

Our first tour of 2021 started out with a bang! We left Alert Bay in the early afternoon with eight passengers under cloudy skies that gradually cleared as we headed towards the sheltered waters of the Pearse group of islands. There we slowly cruised through, admiring the dense vegetation and underwater scenery of starfish, shellfish and sea anenomes, and sighting auklets swimming and diving around the boat.

Once through the narrowing opening at the south side of the islands, we cruised into Cormorant Channel. From here, we headed into the Stephanson Islands and slowed down for our first wildlife viewing. Harbour seals were lounging on the rocks with their cute spring pups, unperturbed by our presence. Bald eagles were in the trees to our right, and we carried on through this group of picturesque islands to find more Harbour seals, alert and ready to jump into the water..

We moved along until we were beside Stubbs Island and into Weynton Passage, where we caught sight of a blow! Sure enough, a lone Humpback was making its way along so that we could see its back as it took several shallow dives, before finally plunging into the deep, waving its tail at us. Then for the next piece of good news: we received word that Resident Orca were headed in our direction. As we headed east out of the Sound, we had the amazing fortune of encountering the Orca just off the shore of Donegal Head on Malcolm Island. What an exciting time! The sun came out and, adults and calves, about 10 or 12 Orcas in total, were moving along and stopping to splash and dive.

We felt so lucky to be seeing the very first appearance of these Northern Residents so early in the season, and in between them all, another Humpback and later, a group of lively Pacific White-Sided Dolphins. One more glimpse of the Orca, then headed for home under sunny skies, spotting more seals along the way.

Altogether, an amazing way to begin the whale watching season, experiencing the joy of being out on the water surrounding by amazing vistas of mountains, forest and sea life.