Ten+ Humpbacks with T49As at Race Rocks October 24, 2024

pugetsoundexpr... - 10+ humpbacks and T49A Bigg's orcas! October 24, 2024 was one of those days where imagery doesn't quite do justice to what we saw on the water. Our Port Townsend half-day tour started the day off finding two minke whales (thanks to eagle-eyed passengers!) off of Eastern Bank. We then headed to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve near Victoria, B.C. in search of humpbacks. We arrived on-scene to see a pair of humpbacks as well as...the T49A family of Bigg's orcas. Great looks at that family, as you'll see in the first part of this video. But as we were watching the orcas, we could see humpbacks ALL around us. We headed towards Vancouver Island to get closer looks and for the next hour, it was whale soup!
At 1:14 in this video, the humpback action kicks into high gear. Your humble videographer had a tough time of it, as there were so many whales it was a bit like a dog seeing "SQUIRREL" everywhere! Where to point the camera?! Here-there-everywhere - literally every direction had humpbacks surfacing. At a certain point, we just had to put the camera down and marvel at it all. This time of year large numbers of humpbacks are busy feeding before resuming their migration journey. Some days, we see more than others - but Thursday was a bonanza. Apologies in advance for the many quick clips in this video - it might give you a flavor for what it was like out there.
Our Edmonds tour also saw minkes, orcas, and humpbacks on the same day...but all of them south of Edmonds in Puget Sound! Glorious.
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