Whale Watching with Prince of Whales

Every time I take a ferry across from Vancouver to Vancouver Island I always hope to see some whales. It’s a rare occurrence to see any form of whale while traveling the BC Ferry routes so I asked Robyn if she wanted to do an Orca Whale Watching tour when we got to Victoria. She was a bit hesitant at first but she was intrigued about the idea. I have always wanted to go on a whale tour even since I got my Canon DSLR. The last whale watching tour I did was when I went to Alaska back in 2006. I went on a humpback whale tour and saw the magnificent mammals in their natural habitat. Too bad I don’t have those photos any more.

Prince of Whales

Whenever I think about whale watching companies, the first one that has always popped into my mind has been Prince of Whales. Prince of Whales has been in operation since 1995 and have locations in both Victoria and Vancouver. With their fleet of zodiacs and two Ecological cruisers (Ocean Magic I & II) they can run tours to the resident Orca pods every half hour (during peak times).

I do highly recommend taking one of the zodiacs as I thought the ride itself was worth the $95 price per person.

The Ocean Magic (I & II) are 62-foot vessels that have on-board washrooms, heated indoor seating area (with pantries) as well as a large outside on-deck area to view the killer whales and other marine wildlife. With carrying capacities of up to 74 people, the carbon foot print is minimized without hampering the views for the passengers.

When you first arrive at the Prince of Whales location in the Inner Harbour of downtown Victoria you get to suit up in red jumpsuits which also act as flotation devices. You might think it odd to wear things during these hot sunny days, but when you are out on the water traveling at 35 knots (~60km/h) you will be glad you are wearing one.

Twelve of us boarded the first zodiac of the day which sat us comfortably. Our tour guide told us what we would expect and that we had a really good chance of seeing Orca (killer whales) as they were seen feeding the previous day. We slowly made our way through the Inner Harbour past Ogden Point, at which point he opened up the throttle and sped us to San Juan Island at 35 knots! It’s pretty cool to see the coast of Victoria from the perspective of a water craft, I also had a smile plastered on my face the entire way.

Thar She Blows!

When we got to the San Juan Island (US) right off the bat we got to see Orcas zig-zagging their way down the shore line feeding on salmon. Our guide mentioned that the Orcas would dive roughly 100 feet down to feed on the large amount of salmon that were in the waters. According to our guide these were members of the J-Pod, a group of resident Orcas traveling south to feed on the incoming salmon.

It was pretty cool and surreal to see these magnificent mammals in their natural habitat. Prince of Whales is really good at following the whale watching guidelines that has been put out by the BeWhaleWise Orginization. We would approach, and then back off to to either side of the whales to ensure we did not interfere with them. Being on the zodiac allowed for the best possible approach for capturing these mammals in their environment with my camera too.

It also helped that I borrowed my buddies EF 2.0x Extender to increase my focal reach (400mm) as well.

There were a couple of breaches, but they were too far away to capture their glory with my camera. We did get a great spy hop from one of the males though and it was pretty close. Orcas will spy hop when they want to take a look at the surface surroundings, its a pretty cool thing to see happen.

Among the J-Pod is one of the oldest documented Orca whales in North America tagged as J1. He is estimated to be over 58 years of age!  In total we saw about 6 different Orca whales, which included 2 younger whales.

Heading Back

The trip back after 3 hours was pretty fun. Speeding over the water at 35 knots and getting air off of other boats’ wakes is pretty cool. We slowed and approached some of the smaller islands that are off the shore of Victoria (across from Willows Beach in Oak Bay) where dozens of Harbour Seals were basking in the sun along with some seagulls and cormorants.

If you are looking for a great tour to see some of the coolest water mammals, then I highly recommend heading over to Prince of Whales and booking one of the 3-hour tours they have. I also recommend booking the zodiac over the Ocean Magic if you want a more intimate setting with Orca whales.

Not in Victoria? You can head over to their Coal Harbour location in Vancouver for a few options from whale watching to general water tours too!

Either way both operations offer great experiences for water based sight-seeing! Perhaps next time we’ll see Grey Whales or even Humpback Whales!

You can check out the rest of the other photos I uploaded from our Prince of Whales experience over at Flickr.