Boundary Pass

April 24, 2008
A lone Minke Whale was sighted in Boundary Pass, just south of Blunden Island at approximately 2 PM. By the time our boat arrived on scene, the whale was travelling in a mostly Eastbound direction, rambling a bit in a typical Minke fashion as it went. It showed absolutely no distress at the boats being in the vicinity, and even surfaced at one point aiming directly for our stopped vessel. Some lunge feeding was observed, with the rostrum just over the surface, and baleen just visible in its upper jaw. A closer inspection of a zoomed and cropped photo shows scars from what appears to be a boat propeller. On an otherwise whale-free day in our vicinity, this little Minke made the day for our passengers!
Joan Lopez, Naturalist, Vancouver Whale Watch


March 10, 2008
Ron Bates of the Marine Mammal Research Group in Victoria called to relay a report they got this afternoon of a large pod of orcas observed from a ferry in Active Pass this morning around 11 am. The orcas were heading toward Georgia Strait.