I went on this tour on the recommendation of a friend. I'm glad I did as it was a life-changing... read more
I went on this tour on the recommendation of a friend. I'm glad I did as it was a life-changing... read more
My husband and I had planned a whale watching trip, but unexpectedly needed to cancel due to a... read more
epic adventure out on the water, saw multiple humpback and Biggs orcas, harbour seals, seal lion and multiple species of birds. Great boat with amazing Captain John and naturalist Rolene. The boat has a inside portion with seating for 20 plus, in addition there is an outside, uncovered viewing area for 10 people to sit up top. The boat is very clean and includes a bathroom. We took both the 8 am and 1pm tours on the same day. What a day, it was super sunny and warm, the perfect day to sit up top, with camera and binoculars and enjoy the ocean and the wildlife. Captain John has lived in the area for years and told us lots of the history of the area while we cruised. Rolene the naturalist is great, has lots of knowledge of the local wildlife and explained differences in Orca types etc. We saw the Biggs Orcas (transient, mammal eaters) in a very large group. It was thrilling, to see them and watch them socialize. The tours are about 3.5 hours long, and they have water to drink. Most of us brought our own drinks and snack. I will be going back again next year for sure. Loved every second of this tour
Thank you Marie E, for sharing your experience on not one but two of our Whale Watching & Wildlife Safaris. It certainly sounds like you had one of those simply epic days out on the water! One of the reasons we all love what we do is that from one day to another it is never the same. As we get to know these fascinating marine mammals especially the giant humpback whales, we realize that there is still so much that we don't know and have still to learn about their behaviour. As I am sure Roleen explained we document sightings of returning whales their behaviour and foraging habits and it is now appearing that these differ slightly up and down our coastline - its just fascinating!
We are very proud of our Captains and Crew, they are a wealth of information with years of experience working in our coastal waters and genuinely love what they do and ensuring that all our guests have a great tour. They also work hard to ensure that every tour counts towards education, research and conservation in order to increase awareness of this fragile eco-system and the importance of preserving our wildlife and spectacular coastal environment for generations to come.
Looking forward to welcoming you back again next year. Thank you!
Everything about our experience was first class and we were able to see at least a dozen humpback whales, thanks to our superb crew. Caption Ted and Roleen, our Naturalist, worked together seamlessly to spot whales and wildlife, and stuck with it even with the clouds turned to torrential rain. The boat is comfortable, with plenty of room even when we all had to take refuge from the downpour. Roleen kept us busy sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm about everything whale-related.
Fantastic! We always love to know that our guests enjoyed their experience out on the water with us. Captain Ted & Roleen make for a great team don't they.We are extremely fortunate with all our Captain's and Naturalist's - they are genuinely passionate about what they do and 100% committed to making sure that you see as much wildlife as possible without disturbing their natural behaviour, interpreting what you are observing rain or shine. Thank you Nan H for your review. It was our pleasure having you onboard. We hope to welcome you back one day.
We set out on a beautiful, calm, sunny morning with Captain John and Kaitlin; the boat was a comfortable, double-decker and we had excellent views of the spectacular scenery from the top deck. We could see the mountains on both the mainland and the island, topped with snow in many places. The many islands are mainly covered in forests of firs coming down to the shore.
We were happily surprised to be taken to see a threesome of humpback whales very soon after setting out; they were playing on the surface and diving periodically. Kaitlin was able to quickly identify the individuals and tell us a bit about them.
Then we motored over to a buoy in the channel where a crowd of Stellar’s sea lions were resting up, safely hauled out of the sea away from predatory orcas. There was not quite enough room for all of them so we witnessed a bit of bad tempered jostling and turfing into the water.
Captain John gave us more interesting information as we motored on to visit Mitlenatch Island, a Provincial Park set aside for conservation and research. Here seals bask on the rocky shore and colonies of cormorants and guillemots nest and roost. The island, we were told, has an unusually mild, dry climate, it is also home to a colony of over-sized garter snakes.
We motored on to the further side of Quadra Island where we met up with two further humpback whales; they were playing together, smacking the water with their flukes and tails.
Altogether, the trip was a delight: well organised, efficient, informative and friendly. A big thank-you to Captain John and Kaitlin for looking after us so well. I would highly recommend this company if you are anywhere in the area.
Averil-Stamford-UK Thank you for taking the time out of your Canadian holiday to write a review and to recommend us to visitors in the area. We are so fortunate to be living and operating in such a beautiful part of the world and appreciate that fact daily. Our experienced Captains as you noted with Capt. John, have a lifetime's experience navigating our waters and are as enthusiastic about our coastal environment and its wildlife as any of us. Our knowledgeable naturalists have a passion and love of what they do that is contagious as you experienced with Kaitlin. Being out on the water observing these majestic awe-inspiring creatures develops a passion that goes way beyond your day to day job. Kaitlin and others work year round cross matching sightings and working to assist with the development and maintenance of identification catalogues to assist research and conservation of our marine wildlife. The increasing return in the numbers of humpback to our area each year is ,as not so long ago we rarely saw one!
As a company our goal has always been to ensure that every tour counts towards education, research and conservation and that our guests have a memorable experience that is one of the highlights of their visit Canada. Thank you, enjoy the rest of your holiday and safe travels back to the UK.
We went whale watching twice with Discovery Marine. The Captain and Naturalist on each trip were fantastic.Our safety was of great concern to them.They were always looking out for us.They were so enthusiastic to share their knowledge. We were lucky enough to see eagles, seals, sea lions, orcas and humpbacks. The icing on the cake for us was seeing 2 humpbacks breaching several times and do lots of pectoral fin slapping
Marion_Harvey Thank you for your review and for booking the two tours with us, it was our pleasure to have you onboard. Our Captain's and naturalist's have a genuine passion and love of what they do. Your safety, comfort and experience is our main priority. The enthusiasm and knowledge of our crew is 100% genuine - being out on the water observing these majestic awe-inspiring creatures develops a passion that goes way beyond the time that they out spend on the water.
You certainly were lucky to see the both the Bigg's, mammal eating killer whales and the majestic giant humpbacks. There is nothing quite like seeing a humpback breach (weighing up to 40+ tonnes) it is amazing how seemingly effortlessly they can launch themselves out of the water before splashing back in. Operating in the wild we can and will never guarantee any sightings of one particular species but you certainly had some fantastic sightings!
There is still much to learn about our whales and other marine mammals and the more we learn the more fascinating they become and our commitment to protecting them grows daily. As a company our goal has always been to ensure that every tour counts towards education, research and conservation and that our guests have a memorable experience that is one of the highlights of their visit Canada. Thank you for booking with us and we hope to welcome you back again one day soon.
Caitlyn (sp?) and Captain Ted took us out for a morning on the water. It was a beautiful sunny day and we saw several pods of orcas and a whole bunch of humpbacks. It was incredible! Caitlyn and Ted were super nice and really enthusiastic, answering all our questions. There are binoculars for rent, which I recommend. The boat is comfortable and safe, and has a bathroom. Get up top if you can for the best views.
We have been very fortunate with our mammal eating orca sightings this season. There is nothing quite like it when you are lucky enough to enjoy sightings of our Bigg's Killer whales and the majestic giant humpback on one trip! The return of the humpbacks to our local waters is fantastic and the increase in numbers year on year is super exciting as is the fact that we are now in a position to identify individual whales by their flukes and dorsal fins allowing our naturalists like Kaitlin to document and track different behaviours observed up and down our coastline and report back to the various research bodies. We are very proud of our Captains and their commitment to safety and responsible whale watching and our naturalists who work hard to ensure that every tour of ours counts for the sake of education, research & conservation.
Thanks for including the recommendation to /rent binoculars, they allow you to really observe the behaviour and individual identification markings and shapes that we use to identify the whales. It was our pleasure having you onboard sdev18 and we are thrilled that you had a memorable experience. Thank you for booking with us, we hope to welcome you back one day.
We were thrilled to see all the wildlife we got to witness on Sunday! We saw humpbacks, killer whales, seals, eagles and dolphins! There was so much going on it was hard to catch it all. Our captain and naturalist were so great at informing us and seeking out where the action was! My Scotish friiends and I were feeling very lucky to have shared this experience! Great, great experience!!
MickeyC228, thank you for your review. Operating in the wild we never know what we are going to see but there are those days like last Sunday, when we are extremely fortunate and see an incredible variety of wildlife including both humpback and mammal eating killer whales. On these days, as I'm sure you noticed our passionate captain and naturalists are often among the most excited on board. Their enthusiasm and genuine love for the whales and other marine mammals can be contagious. Our goal is always to observe without disturbing and tho ensure that all our tours count towards education, research and conservation. We want our guests to have a first class experience and we are thrilled to know that you and your friends visiting from Scotland had a great experience while out on one of our tours. Thank you!