Prince Of Whales
Book Now
Call 1-888-383-4884
Book Now »

LOCATIONS

Victoria | Vancouver | Seattle
How to get here

FAQ

Want to know more?
Frequently asked questions

ROUTES

Want to see where we go?
Our trip covers 200 miles!

CREW

We love what we do!
Meet the Crew

Tag Archives: southern residents

Ocean Magic Wildlife Adventure June 17 3:30

Posted on by
As the tug boat with its load left the harbour, and the cruise ships headed into Victoria, the 3.30pm Ocean Magic 2 vessel turned east on route to find the Transient killer whales that had been seen on an earlier trip. We were traveling north up Haro Strait when word came in that many Orca were heading in from the west. Capt Gord, and crew members Mika, and Dan turned the boat around and we headed south to try to find the Southern Residents. We came across them, porpoising and traveling fast on the incoming tide. Whitecaps were beginning to form with the strong westerly wind which made for a thrilling ride while watching these magnificent whales plying the waves. Members of all three pods, J, K , L were identified as they swam by. Two of the oldest females in J Pod were seen, J 2, Granny, and J 8 Spieden as well as other members of K Pod, Raggedy, K 40, and K 21 Cappuccino. There is nothing so exciting as seeing these charismatic marine mammals all heading our way in what we call a Superpod! What a special trip this afternoon provided for our guests and we even had glimpses of a Harbour Porpoise. A fantastic trip with Prince of Whales once again. Marie, Orca-Magic. Most of the images on the blog are shot with a 400 mm telephoto lens. Because of our restrictions around wildlife (100+ meters), we use powerful lenses to better share orca activity that passengers see on their trips. Keep in mind this also heavily compresses space between objects. We also crop images for best blog viewing.

Winter Wildlife Adventure Tour Jan 3

Posted on by
Reply
And what an exquisite day to start 2011 off with. Our three hour wildlife adventure took us just south of Victoria. The weather gave us great conditions with flat calm water and plenty of sunshine. It even felt relatively warm simply because there was no wind for a change.! Our skipper ‘Rush’ headed us south of the harbour in search of Orca. A report had just come in to say Orca had been sighted off the westcoast at Sooke much earlier and they were inbound. Great excitement was anticipated by our international visitors, from Hawaii, Germany and Brazil. It wasn’t long before we could see the black dorsal fins rising from the surface in the distance with their misty exhalations, ‘blows’. It seemed there were whales spread right across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As far as the eye could see in these ideal conditions, there were whales. They were busy foraging, chasing after Salmon, and changing direction all the time. One never knew where they would pop up. J2, ‘Granny ‘ the oldest female of the Southern Resident clan of fish eating Orca, and J8, ‘Spieden’, were traveling together and churning the water as they porpoised after fish. Granny is 100 yrs old this year. Other members of J Pod and K Pod were seen along with L87, a young male, who likes to travel with this group, keeping close proximity to the older females. Youngsters were chasing one another, while others floated along on their backs embracing the moment it seemed. Eventually they headed slowly off to the east and some seemed to be heading south east. Mt. Baker looked wonderful as the backdrop for this amazing encounter. Our guests were enthralled with this once in a life time spectacle. One thing about ‘ORCA’, they will always surprise us! Marie, Orca-Magic.

Ocean Magic Adventure Oct 23 12:15

Posted on by
Reply
Today may have started dark and wet, but once out on the water the rain stopped and the sun came out. Our Skipper Anna took us west to Race Rocks where we were on scene with a SUPER POD. The Orca from all three resident pods, J K and L were headed east. The Killer Whales were everywhere you looked, just an amazing sight. There was spy hops, breaching and tail slaps. Just a truly amazing sight to watch these magnificent whales swim past. Our trip then took us east to view a pair of Humpback Whales. This was a mother and calf, swimming side by side. With our engines off we could all hear the whales as the broke the surface and took in their air. As we headed back into Victoria, we are all smiles after another great wildlife adventure with Prince of Whales! Clint “Orcawizard”

Ocean Magic Adventure Oct 16 12:15

Posted on by
Reply
Yet another perfect sunny, flat, calm warm day. Ok, so it’s not summer warm but it’s warm enough that when the sun shines on you, you don’t need your hat and coat out on the water! We departed the Victoria inner harbour intending to head east to where we heard there were orca off San Juan Island and possibly a superpod. Imagine that in the middle of October. On our way, we came across 2 humpback whales hanging around just a few miles south of Victoria in the Juan de Fuca Strait. We stopped to watch a few of their dives and magnificent tails before heading east. On our way to the orcas, we found a mother and calf humpback whale pair swimming a couple of miles off San Juan Island. The humpbacks have been hanging around in Haro Strait recently (usually over in Juan de Fuca), I am sure this has been very exciting for our friends across the boarder! We arrived at San Juan Island / Henry Island to find members of Lpod and possibly Kpod and Jpod. Passengers got views of some of the youngsters breaching and traveling with their parents. We were fortunate to get a look at one of the new calves L115 + mom L47. You can see images of the calf in the slide show. Video of humpback whales to come. Wonderful day out there, and the sold out boat proved that many other people had the same idea – to get out on the water and enjoy the elements and wildlife.

Ocean Magic Adventure Oct 7 12:15

Posted on by
Reply
Today the ocean magic set out in search of orca. On route to San Juan Island, we crossed several groups of harbour porpoises. These are small grey cetaceans who resemble a small dolphin. We arrived at Hein Bank where we observed a Minke whale which is a baleen whale about 30 feet in length. The animal was milling about and seemed to be in a feeding mode. We carried on to the Lime Kiln park area of San Juan Island where we observed members of Jpod and Lpod heading south. I noticed Ruffles (J1) traveling alone along the shoreline, I wonder if those people at Lime Kiln got a good look at him. Passengers on board got a good look at a few large males including; Gaia (L78) and Blackberry (J27) amongst other orcas such as Wave walker (L88). Thanks to Marie who had her orca chart with her today and was able to ID some of the animals we observed. It’s pretty awesome to see the orcas hanging around their favorite stomping grounds in October, hope we have many more days with them this year :)