Hi folks,
I live just outside of Vancouver and want to do a whale/sea critter photography boat tour around the island: does anyone have any recommendations?
Of course whales, orcas and porpoise would be amazing, but I'd also really like to see sea otters.
Well you are in exactly the right place to start researching. I live near London but know the west coast pretty well having travelled there several times. You may find other places but I can gove you some places to stay your research. I'm not sure there is any single trip around the island (it's not muck smaller than the UK and a round Britain trip is an epic adventure too. Most wildlife watching seems to be from specialists out go the smaller ports:
My experience:
Port Hardy & Port McNeil Coastal Rainforest Safaris operate out of Port Hardy and do trips to see Sea Otters of the North East in the Queen Charlotte Strait. Very good signing with good photo ops up there. also likely to see resident Orca, Steller Sea Lions and maybe great Whales. they have a partner org from Port NcNeil who will take you al a longish trip into Queen Charlotte Strait and over to the mainland to see Knight and the Grizzlies who feed on sedge at the waters edge. Also likely to see Orca, whales and Steller's again. Will stop off at Alert Bay on the way home at first nation museum there where the guides will give you a personal tour very enlightening.
Campbell River (Painters Lodge). This is really a up market fishing lodge but they do Orca trips up to near Quadra Island (Resident and Transient pods).
On the west coast Uclulet (in Berkley Sound) is good with a number of boat operators and kayak trips or Tolfino are good spots to search / head for
Victoria runs larger boat whale watching but not something I've done.
On the mainland, there are some specialists up near Alaska boarder (Port Rupert or Terrace) for superb Grizzly and Spirit bear trips but they are further away!)
There is more on my website (under 'Trips') -website link is on my details here).
HTH.
