In celebration of Summer Solstice!

June 21st

We celebrated the first day of summer and the longest day of the year with a lovely family from Italy on tour this afternoon. They had keen eyes and spotted a black bear soon after departing from Alder Bay. It was a sub-adult munching on the crustaceans which hid in the rockweed that was fused to the intertidal zone.

We approached the occupied Eagles nest, and to our delight, the Eaglet was sitting upright giving us all a grand view of this rapidly growing Eagle chick.

Dall's Porpoise, Harbour Seals and Steller Sea Lions were spotted as we cruised with the outgoing tide, through one of the major passageways and in the distance we could see a lone Humpback whale surface. We spent some time viewing this Humpback that swam in slow circles, taking long dives and never lifting its

fluke.

We headed further north to explore picturesque islets framed by bull kelp forests and examined a piece of bull kelp closely. Our guests marveled at the seaweed, now understanding how quickly it grows in the short window of summer.

We started our journey back towards home when a large splash in the distance caught our eye. It was the same Humpback but this time it was lifting up its tail and slapping it hard on the ocean surface creating a wall of whitewater. We counted at least a dozen times where the fluke was raised high out of the water and then brought back down with tremendous force.

We were thrilled with this grand finale and happy to spend the summer solstice with a family so interested with everything we showed them.