Posts Tagged ‘Orcinus orca’

Orcas!!

September 29, 2016

This morning my plan for second year marine scientists was to go to Race Rocks to look at marine mammals (sea lions & seals) and birds. My plan went out the window, however, when Kyle spotted orcas as we were underway. We were totally distracted by these magical creatures. We didn’t made it to Race Rocks but we had a wonderful and transformative adventure.

Aurora, Orca, Andras
Orca in the distance
Aurora, Eskil, Andras
Axl, Martin, Aurora
Stefan, Jill, Navo, Zoli

We saw two females with a calf and two bulls. Although I don’t have any good photos of the whales, I did get many photos of the backs of students’ heads!

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Sea lions, seals and orcas, oh my!

September 28, 2016

First year marine scientists had a wonderful experience at Race Rocks on Friday 23 September. We went to explore this amazing ecosystem and to observe marine mammals and birds.

house-and-tower

We brought Felix Butschek (yr 36, Austria) along:

felix-photographing

More details to follow on his visit later…

We did see (and hear and smell!) many, many sea lions:

Observing a California sea lion
Damage done to sea lion by a cookie cutter shark

We were also lucky to observe five Northern elephant seals:

Northern elephant seal
Elephant seal parade
Elephant seals and the jetty

As an added bonus one group of students also saw orcas:

Spyhopping orca
Orca in the distance
Whale watching
Orcas followed us to the mouth of Pedder Bay

For more photos see Flickr album here. And for Anne’s summary of the day and some better orca photos, see the Race Rocks blog.

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Orcas, Octopus and Urchins, oh my!

October 6, 2015

Stella Miguel Orca German

On our way to the kelp forest this afternoon, G block marine scientists were distracted by three orcas making their way from the mouth of Pedder Bay towards Victoria. It was a magical experience to follow the whales as they travelled past William Head. There were two males and one female in the group.

We pulled ourselves away from the whales and headed back to Fossil Point where three divers and five snorkelers entered the water to explore the kelp forest. This time, Courtney brought us a giant red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) and it was Jasper that found the octopus (an already-dissected octopus!).Red urchin

Inside mantle cavity Beakless octopus

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