Hunting Killer whales and Fantastic Humpbacks!

Just one of those days... just when we thought our day couldn't get any better, the channel had one more surprise in store!

THE MORNING TRIP : Sensational morning conditions graced the day. The sea was flat, and the light was beautiful. WE quickly got into the action. Whales and dolphins were everywhere and often fed together as pictured below.

Common dolphins and a humpback whale.

Among the dozens of whales, a cow/ calf soon approached the boat. The calf started breaching repeatedly, giving us quite the show! At one point, it breached a mere 15 feet from the boat. Even at ~6 months old, these babies are still GIANT! There's nothing quite like a 15-foot 10-ton newborn!

Humpback calf explodes out of the water next to us!

In the distance, a few more whales caught our attention. As we started to make our way towards those distant whales, this one breached RIGHT NEXT TO US! This humongous and rather dark whale then went on a RAMPAGE! From tail slapping to pec slapping to the closest breach Captain Adam has ever experienced, this whale put on quite the breathtaking show.

THE AFTERNOON TRIP : The Weather had picked up quite a bit since the morning. Whales were close in proximity to the harbor and allowed us to get great looks. Two separate pairs began kelping, and one pair even came over for a few friendly passes.

A humpback exhaling through kelp.

After watching a nice cow/ calf pair, we came across a very active pec/ tail slapper! Different from the whale on the morning trip, the amount of activity today was truly staggering!

As we headed home, 3 spouts caught Captain Adam's eye. They were low, packed tightly together, and headed straight towards us. Soon, it became apparent what they were: killer whales! We haven't seen killer whales since February, and July isn't a prevalent time of year for them to be seen. Regardless, we spent an hour with two calves and two mothers. At first, they were a bit shy but warmed up quickly and made multiple close passes. Soon, they began hunting, barreling out of the water as a superpod of common dolphins was nearby.

The whales quickly made work of a single dolphin out of the 1,000-strong pod. Without so much as making a splash, they managed to kill the dolphin and began sharing its remains. Just like us, these whales need to eat too, and while it's sad to see the life of a dolphin end prematurely, we can't forget that killer whales need to eat too. Their kills go on to feed plenty of other animals as well, like this western gull picking at scraps.

Today was unreal. It was an incredible example of the diversity of our channel and acted as a stark reminder that ANYTHING is possible on any given day!

Watch a few video clips from the hunting killer whales below :

Killer whales hunting common dolphins.

Until Next Time,

The SBWW Crew

*Photos and video credit to Captain Adam*