Whale Watching Report

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Orca Whales Sighted on 24 of Last 25 Tours!

J-Pod sighted from Island Explorer 3! Stay tuned for details from Naturalist Kate Janes!

Cruise By (Blossom-J11)

Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes

"It was a special treat for our guests as we cruised the inner islands towards Battleship Island where we found J Pod!! Along the way we visited a Bald Eagles at its nest on Decatur Island and just before departing its mate returned carrying food in its talons! These wouldn't be the only eagles of the trip, by the end we would see a total of 7! Just past Spieden Island, as we entered Haro Strait, we began to see the members of J pod really spread out! To our surprise Blossom (J11) appeared followed by her 17 year old son Blackberry (J27). We spent some quality time with this mother & son as they navigated through some riptides and among lots of debris. Conveniently they swam in the direction of a log that had a branch sticking straight up that we kept confusing as a dorsal fin of a whale! We eventually went to visit with some of the other whales. Our guests enjoyed as the whales became more active breaching, spyhopping, and taillobing! We left with a final visit with Oreo's (J22) subpod. Her neice Rhapsody (J32), her son Doublestuff (J34) & her youngest Cookie (J38) all swam giving our guests great looks as they were nearly swimming in unison! Other wildlife we saw on our adventure today included: a Black-tail Deer on Shaw Island, Pigeon Guillemots, Rhinoceros Auklets, Harbor Porpoise, & Harbor Seals!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 4:34 PM   0 Comments

Friday, June 6, 2008

Orca Whales Heading Toward Anacortes!

Orca Whales are southbound from Point Roberts and The Island Explorer 3 is northbound to show our guests whales! Stay tuned to the Whale Report for updates from Naturalist Kate Janes!
The Approach (Tahlequah J35)
Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes
Just Below (Tahlequah J35)
Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes

A Slow Surface (Tahlequah J35)
Photo by Naturalist Kate Janes

"We may have started our day with rain that eventually gave way to a light mist, BUT the weather broke just before we came on scene with the Orcas of J pod and the remainder of the day was spent in the company of blue skies! Today we found the orcas just south of Point Roberts very spread out. We eventually peeled off with the eastern most group and enjoyed some great looks at Ruffles, J1. There were a few young guests on board who were quite thrilled to meet one of the wild celebrities from the Free Willy Movie! Then IT happened. After our time with Ruffles we noticed two other whales further south. We parallel one for some time and then suddenly there was a direction change. Tahlequah (J35) decided she wanted to watch some humans!! With our engines now out of gear we just sat back and enjoyed what happened next. She appeared at our stern surfacing a couple of times then we watched her swimming just under the water along the port side!! During this period of time she was really moving, then about midship she just stopped. Still underwater we could see her eyepatch as she appeared to be looking up at us on the Island Explorer 3!! Then very slowly she rose out of the water, took a breath and then quickly swam off!! What a breathtaking gift. We not only spent time with Tahlequah & Ruffles, but we also saw Granny (J2) & Polaris (J28- who is Tahlequah's sister)! Also on the trip we visited with 7 Bald Eagles, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Harbor Seals, Pacific Madrone Trees, Marbled Murrelets, Harbor Porpoise, and Pacific Loons." - Naturalist Kate Janes








posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 1:30 PM   0 Comments

Thursday June 5th, 2008 J-pod Breaching Like Crazy!

We probably saw 75 plus breaches today!!


Blackberry (J27) doing a cartwheel

Granny (J2) coming down from a breach!!


What a day we had today. It was cold and rainy on and off today, and we had to go a long way to find the whales today, but it was all worth it. We headed north today in search of J-pod. Along the way we saw a couple of bald eagles, and we slowed down a bit to look at a few seals hauled out on Peapod Rocks. We were searching very hard for J-pod especially as we got north of the San Juan Islands. Yesterday we saw one brown pelican, and today we saw a flock of 7 pelicans. Finally J-pod appeared just south of Point Roberts, and they we breaching all over the place! J-pod did non-stop breaching the entire time we spent with them! I've been a naturalist for 8 years out here and I was shaking, it was so exciting. We probably saw 70 breaches today! It looked like every member of J-pod must have breached at one time or another, from the little ones all the way up to some of the old timers, including Granny (J2) and Ruffles (J1). Ruffles breached several times and Granny did a full breach for us at close range. At the time Granny breached she was swimming with Blackberry (J27) who also decided to breach several times along with performing a number of cartwheels! It was difficult to decide which group of orcas to look at because they were all coming out of the water. We were all high fiving each other up in the wheelhouse. It was so hard to leave J-pod today I could hardly stand it. If it weren't for the windy, rainy weather I probably would have had captain Michael drop me off in one of our life rafts for the rest of the afternoon. Naturalist - Bart Rulon

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 10:31 AM   1 Comments

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Orca Whales off Point Roberts!

J-Pod sighted by Island Explorer 3! K and L Pods are quite a ways west toward the Pacific today but will probably return tomorrow or Saturday. New K-Pod baby confirmed as K42! Stay tuned to the Whale Report for an update from Naturalist Bart Rulon! 

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 2:52 PM   0 Comments

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

K & L pods return for a superpod day!!


We started out our day with some nice wildlife sightings right as we were leaving the dock. A bald eagle was on a sand flat just inside the breakwater, and the low tide exposed many ochre sea stars as we passed close by. On our way northward we saw several more bald eagles on Guemes Island and Jack Island, along with the eagle's nest on Jack Island. We also spotted two peregrine falcons flying on the east side of Guemes Island. It wasn't long before we were on scene with orcas on the west side of Lummi Island. K-pod and L-pod came in yesterday and we had a superpod with all three pods swimming together today!! The first group of orcas that we visited were J-pod orcas. Blackberry (J27) and Mako were being very playful for us, with a few breaches, and lots of rolling around. We watched them for about 20 minutes. Soon you could see orcas in all directions, and it was hard to tell everyone where to look because they were all over the place! Next we spotted Ruffles (j1) swimming with Faith (L57). By the time we made it over to them Ruffles had slowed down and we watched him swimming alone for 10 minutes. Knowing we would have other chances to see the superpod later in the trip we decided to peel off for a look at Peapod Rocks. On our way there captain Michael spotted a brown pelican, which is an uncommon sighting. At Peapod Rocks we found yet another bald eagle and lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. Next we headed back to the orcas as they were at the north end of Guemes Island close to shore. They continued to be very playful with L-pod and J-pod members doing spyhops, breaches, and lots of tail lobs. At one point we even saw two orcas doing a double breach at the same time! What a fantastic day! We were all very excited to see K and L pods back in town, and they seemed excited too! Naturalist - Bart Rulon

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 9:34 PM   0 Comments

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

They're Back!!

The Orca whales of J pod are now reunited with their friends of K & L pod!! We have confirmed reports that J pod, K pod and part of L pod are catching up near South Beach, San Juan Island!! Our next trip is tomorrow June 4th at noon!

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 10:55 AM   0 Comments

Monday, June 2, 2008

Smiles from Ear to Ear!


"We left the dock at an extremely low tide exposing 50+ Sea Stars (star fish) on the pilings!! The Orcas of J pod brought us up into the Strait of Georgia just west of Cherry Point! We arrived on scene just as the 25 members of the pod broke off into 2 distinct groupings. This gave our guests the opportunity to see all the whales of J pod!! After a few good looks at the smaller of the two subpods we left Ruffles (J1), Princess Angeline (J17), Polaris (J28), and the other whales he was traveling with to spend some time with the leading subpod! We enjoyed the rest of our time with Slick's (J16) family group from her oldest son Mike (J26) to little J42 and Samish's (J14) subpod from her teenage son Riptide (J30), Hyishqa (J37) and little 4 year old Suttles! We enjoyed watching the whales steadily make their way south while having fun along the way! We witnessed multiple spyhops, cartwheels, breaches, taillobes, and great looks at the subpods traveling in unison!! We also spent time with Spieden (J8), Tsuchi (J31) & Blackberry (J27)!! After a great visit it was time to return home, however we were in for one more HUGE surprise....a breaching Minke Whale appeared 1/8 of a mile south of Alden Bank!! This very active Minke breached once and then continued lunge feeding in a circular pattern!! Back to back double headers!! What a way to start the month of June! We also saw Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Harbor Porpoise, Common Sea Stars, Pacific Loons, Harbor Seals, Common Murres, Great Blue Heron, and Bald Eagles (6 total)!! - Naturalist Kate Janes

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 9:03 PM   1 Comments

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Island Explorer 3 on-Scene with Orca Whales!!

Stay tuned for details from Naturalist Jami Nagel and check out the link below to see the position of the Island Explorer 3 from space!!
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=48.4418,-123.0127&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 "Wow, what a day!! We headed around the south end of Lopez Island and caught up with J-pod just pass Iceberg Pt, Lopez Island. It was like they were waiting for us to arrive. As we came on scene we had 2 youngsters breaching over and over again. We stayed with this group which had Oreo, Doublestuff, Cookie and Eclipse in it. We also had Blossom, Mako and Tsuchi. As we moved away from the group and repositioned ourselves the youngsters caught up with us this time doing several cartwheels and getting one of the older females to breach several times in a row!! Today was a phenomenal day with J-pod. After that amazing look at J-pod we didn't think it could get any better...but it did!!! We were heading through the inter-islands when we spotted a blow in the distance up San Juan channel near Friday Harbor. As we moved up the channel to check it out we discovered it was a juvenile humpback! We had some amazing Fuke shots and some great Id shots for Cascadia! Today turned out to be a double header. We also saw several bald eagles, Rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, harbor porpoise, harbor seals and a river otter."-Naturalist Jami Nagel

posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 2:51 PM   0 Comments

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