Home | Trips | About Trips | Dates & Prices | About Us | Photos | Reservations | Contact Us

Sea Kayaking & Killer Whales

 

Sea Kayaking With Killer Whales Tours
Johnstone Strait, British Columbia

Sea kayaking with Killer Whales, Johnstone Strait British ColumbiaWe have been leading sea kayaking tours in the Johnstone Strait area since 1993, and like the Killer Whales, we anxiously anticipate our return each summer. Join us for a unique wildlife viewing, whale watching and sea kayaking experience, in Johnstone Strait, and Blackfish Sound the best locations in British Columbia, possibly the world, in which to view wild Killer Whales in their natural habitat.

Johnstone Strait is a narrow body of water separating mainland British Columbia from north-eastern Vancouver Island, and is the summer home of British Columbia's northern resident Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca). Every summer the pods of Orca whales enter western Johnstone Strait to feed on the returning schools of wild Pacific salmon. This is also a time for the congregating northern resident Killer Whale matrilines to socialize, and visit the pebble rubbing beaches of the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, the world's first Killer Whale sanctuary.

Johnstone Strait Sea Kayaking & Orca Whales
The Orca Classic 4-Day Basecamp Tours
Orca & Humpbacks 6-Day Discovery Tours

Western Johnstone Strait provides a sensational setting for paddlers to witness the congregation of the ‘northern resident’ pods of Orca Whales. Of the 19 pods of ‘resident’ Killer Whales that frequent the coastal waters of British Columbia, 16 pods (currently around 230 whales) visit these waters.

Sea kayak whale watching in Johnstone Strait, Vancouver IslandThe Killer Whale matrilines (family units) gather to socialize, visit the rubbing beaches of the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve and to feast on the runs of salmon that must pass through the Strait on their journey back to spawning grounds.

Not only will you have opportunity to view these magnificent marine mammals, with our hydrophone (an underwater microphone) you will also have the opportunity to listen in on their vocalizations. Hear the echolocation clicks that Killer Whales use for navigating and in locating salmon, or the distinctive squeals and squawks used for complex social communication between individual animals and other groups of Killer Whales. Your experience will be complemented by your guides providing Orca behaviour interpretation, individual whale identification, and natural history education. Learn about the fascinating social structure of resident Killer Whales, as well as the issues now facing their survival.

From the vantage point of your sea kayak you will have the opportunity to intimately experience your natural surroundings, and enjoy a paddling and wildlife viewing adventure of a lifetime!

For more information on this sea kayaking and wildlife viewing adventure vacation in Johnstone Strait please choose from the links provided in the sidebar or here;
Orca Classic 4-day basecamp
Orca & Humpbacks 6-day sea kayaking.

Trip Area

To view a larger version click on the map image.

Johnstone Strait Sea kayaking with Killer Whales Trip Area Map

Responsible Wildlife Viewing

Pacific Northwest Expeditions recognizes that we have a responsibility to minimize the potential direct and indirect impacts of our activities on all marine wildlife.  Find out more on our wildlife viewing policy.

Conservation

Since our beginnings, Pacific Northwest Expeditions annually donates a portion of proceeds from our Johnstone Strait Sea Kayaking and Killer Whales trips to support wild Killer Whale research and conservation in British Columbia. Learn more.

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pacific Northwest Expeditions
Home | Trips | About Trips | Dates & Prices | About Us | Photos | Reservations | Contact Us
Links & Resources