Photo: Whale Watching Boat Tour Vancouver Island

The fog begins to lift around Northern Vancouver Island as crowds of people on a whale watching tour head to the stern of the boat to see a Killer Whale pass by.

Fog can make whale watching difficult off Northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia as sometimes all you can do is listen for the calls on the hydrophone and guess the direction they are coming. The people on this whale watching tour get lucky as the fog is lifting and the sun begins to brighten up Johnstone Strait as a large male Orca passes their stern.This Killer Whale seems to be having a rest on the surface of the Strait which gives the people extra time to snap a photo or two. Killer whales can be fairly easy to distinguish if their dorsal fins or saddle patches are clearly marked or scarred. This particular male has a big nick out of the top of his dorsal fin and researchers or boat captains have no problems in figuring out which Killer Whale this is and what pod he belongs to.The Northern Resident Killer Whales off Northern Vancouver Island are divided into pods and each individual sticks fairly close to their family. ... continue below the picture...

... Seeing this male whale pass by probably means that the rest of his pod is not too far away and whale watching on this day could become very exciting.A whale watching tour off Northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia is an exceptional thing to do and when you encounter an Orca or two, sometimes fifty or sixty, your adrenaline starts to rise. Each boat that takes part in a whale watching tour is different, so you have to make the choice on which type of boat you prefer to be on.The boat is not a huge priority because if the whales are around the area, each tour will get a chance to see them. When out on the waters around Northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, some days are great with Killer Whales everywhere and other days you can look for hours but they have decided to venture somewhere else for the day. Wild animals make their own choice in which direction they will travel but around the months of July through to October your chances are pretty good to see these magnificent mammals in their natural environment.Killerwhale in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia, Canada, North America observed by many whale watchers on the Gikumi.