Whale watching near Ucluelet

Today, Marije and I went on a boat trip out of Ucluelet, on the other side of the island.

We had our sights set on seeing a grey whale, a medium sized cetacean neither of us had ever seen before. These whales are arriving by the hundreds on the west coast right now, because of their annual trek to Alaska.

First up though, there were sea lions. Just moments out of the harbour we passed an island filled with them:

Obviously, they were in the water too, and when we passed by they immediately approached the boat:

The next island up was used by a small group of harbour seals:

Further up the bay still, the captain spotted our quarry:

The grey whales were hard to see on this grey day, and never showed themselves for more than 2 seconds at a time.

There was more to see though, like this massive flock of surf scoters, the birds made a wonderful sound when they flew off:

And of course, there was the scenery of Barkley Sound:

Then, just before we started our return to the docks, a grey whale popped up in the middle of the birds, to say goodbye:

See you later whale, thanks for the show!