Whale Watching (Vancouver Island)

Hey all,

I am new here at this forum as well as new to Vancouver Island, as I moved here recently (2.5 years ago).

I moved here out of my interest for wildlife, and more specifically, my lifelong fascination with the ocean. Since moving here, my photography hobby has been developing (..haha...) rapidly.

I spotted a pod of Orcas last August, my first whale spotting ever, and another off the ferry on a trip to Vancouver later in the season. After this, I've really got the bug and I'm dieing to see some more.

If anybody knows of good places on the island from which to spot whales from the shore, I would really love to know! More ideally, I would love to meet anybody who is planning on making their way onto the water to spot some whales this season. If you have access to a boat and knowledge of or interest in whale photography, let's get in touch! I would love to work something out.

Thank you all!

Hey, what area of Vancouver Island are you in?

You can see whales from shore all over the island during the summer. I've seen grey whales, humpbacks and orcas on shore and on boats in Bamfield and Telegraph Cove. I've seen orca pods in the Comox Valley and Victoria. You will probably be able to see lots of whales in Tofino the right time of the year.

There are lots of whale watching tours in Victoria that you can look up. I don't like the tours in Victoria as much since there are several tour companies, and usually only a few orca pods. I think they tend to go closer than they should to the animals to give a better deal than the competition.

There's a whale watching tour in Telegraph Cove done by by Stubbs Island which does a very good tour in a more pristine environment: http://www.stubbs-island.com/

I live in Bamfield and see Humpbacks pretty well every trip.I do fishing charters and on one trip last year I saw nine different whales just running out to the bank(about an hour)Any West Coast trip is very weather dependent and August is not to good because the whales start to thin out a bit and most
mornings are foggy.June and July are the prime months but we do have a very large Humpback that hangs around Bamfield every year in Sept.PM me for more details.

Wow, awesome guys...I will be watching this thread. Will have to check out the Stubbs Island operation for sure -- and halitime, watch out for that PM. I will be sending it when I haven't got so much on the go as I currently do.

Thanks so much! Keep the tips comin'.

I'm in Victoria (James Bay), BTW.