Whale Watching Report

The Island Explorer 3 is off the dock in search of whales! We're heading toward Haro Strait to check out an early morning report of Orca Whales in the area. Stay tuned to the Whale Report for updates on the whales and lots of other wildlife from Naturalist Kate Janes! "Entering into the Strait of Juan de Fuca through Rosario Strait we made a long run towards Constance Bank! Along the way our guests enjoyed an array of wildlife! At Castle Rock a Great Blue Heron fished from its nice spot ontop of Bull Kelp, a mature Bald Eagle few overhead, and a couple of Black Oystercatchers hopped about the rocks looking for their next meal! In the strait Harbor Porpoise swam among feeding Red-necked Phalaropes, deep diving Common Murres, and the low moving beautiful Lion's Mane Jellies that floated by! We welcomed K & a portion of L pod as they reentered the San Juan Islands! The whales were quite spread out in small subpods swimming steadily northward! We enjoyed the company of Splash (L67), Gaia (L78), Alexis (L12) and Cappuccino (K21) as we listened to their exhalations which carried upon the water! They all seemed to be on a mission to reunite with the rest of the Southern Residents that were further north within the San Juan Islands! The party started that evening even before getting on scene with the Orcas! At Salmon Bank a Minke Whale breached an outstanding 3 times- fully breaching tail & all out of the water! It left us all stunned! In Haro Strait we found the Super Pod that fully lived up to its name! All three pods (J, K, & L pods) were stretched out over a few miles! The whales were in high spirits as breaching, spyhopping, cartwheeling, and taillobing could be offshore as well as right along side San Juan Islands shoreline! Among some of the whales we saw included: Mega (L41), Ruffles (J1), Blackberry (J27) & Mike (J26)! Their exhalations appeared white as they swam in waters that appeared black due to the basalt shoreline!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

9:30 Trip
We headed south today to search for whales. We stopped at Colville Island along the way to look at several harbor seals hauled out on the rocks there. As we traveled across Salmon Bank a minke whale surfaced right in front of the boat!! We turned around and let the Minke whale come up a few more times. Next we found the orcas near Eagle Point heading north. It was a mixture of L-pod and J-pod. We were watching the trailers in the group. They seemed to be looking for fish at times, but playful at other times. Early on we saw some cartwheels, and taillobs. Later as they moved north we saw a couple of great breaches. That's just what I was wanting to see! Just as I was pointing out one of the big L-pod males, L74, Saanich, another orca breached right next to him! On the way back home we slowed down to take another close up look at several harbor seals hauled out on Swirl Rocks, including one seal pup. We cruised near Castle rock and saw more seals, a great blue heron, and several purple sea stars. Just around the corner we watched several pairs of marbled murrelets. A research boat was out there and they had already counted 50 murrelets at the south end of Lopez Island. Then to finish off our trip with a bang, first mate Mark, spotted yet another minke whale in Rosario Straits! I think we need to start calling him "Minke Mark"! Naturalist Bart Rulon

3:30pm trip
The orcas that we saw earlier today moved north during the afternoon so we decided to start our trip traveling through the inner San Juan Islands to catch up with them. Along our way through the islands we saw a variety of wildlife including bald eagles, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets, turkey vultures, harbor seals, and harbor porpoises. As we slowed down to go through Pole Pass two black oystercatchers posed for us on the rocks at close range. We were getting close to the orcas by the time we reached Pender Island and we found a pod of Dall's Porpoise swimming quickly along. We found orcas just south of the entrance of Active Pass. It was a mixture of J pod and L pod orcas again. Early on DoubleStuf, J34, came in for a close up look. We also saw Polaris, J28, looking like she was chasing a salmon, Racer, L72, Fluke, L105, and Blackberry, J27, among others. We did see a couple of breaches in the early part of our trip! The orcas seemed to pick up speed as they approached Active Pass and they gradually moved in toward shore. By the time they reached the point most of them were porpoising right next to shore. We watched as they passed by and swam against the tide through Active Pass and we saw a couple of breaches off in the distance as we pulled away! On our way back to the dock the sunset was absolutely beautiful. There were just enough clouds to make the sky especially interesting. Naturalist Bart Rulon

Our morning trip today wasn't a normal whale watching trip. We had a private charter that we took to Friday Harbor for some shopping in the middle of the day. Luckily, L-pod was in a spot where we could give these passengers a short look at whales on our way back to the dock in Anacortes. We found 20 - 30 L-pod orcas swimming close together in a resting group offshore from Iceberg Point. Mega, L41, Matia, L77, Calypso, L94, Racer, L72, Fluke, L105, and others were there including Marina, L47, and the new calf L111. We saws the new calf many times to our passengers delight.

3:30pm Trip
Our second trip started out with rain, and a weather forecast that didn't look ideal, but it turned for the better quickly. Conditions improved and we ended up with calm sea conditions and the rain stopped toward the second half of our trip. We cruised through the inner San Juan Islands to start with. Along the way we found harbor seals, a bald eagle, pigeon guillemots, and rhinoceros auklets. We came out through Cattle Pass and found L-pod orcas spread out offshore from Eagle Point, on San Juan Island. We spent a lot of time with Mega, L41, Matia, L77, and Calypso, L94 in the beginning. All the orcas were changing directions often and appeared to be pursuing salmon. Some groups were more playful and active than others. We gravitated toward the playful groups, and got to see lots of different behaviors including spyhops, breaches and tail slaps. We shut the engines down several times to watch and hear the orcas as they swam by. At one point a big rainbow appeared and we had some of the orcas swimming right in front of it for a great photo opportunity. At the end many L-pod members, including Mega, approached us at close range for a great finale with our engines shut down, calm seas, and the sun doing down, all at the same time. What started out looking like a difficult weather day turned out to be two very enjoyable whale watching trips. Naturalist Bart Rulon

"Our adventure started in Guemes Channel as we passed channel markers, as known as cormorant condos, with Pelagic Cormorants perched on their nests within the marker! We continued southward down Rosario Strait watching as the Harbor Porpoise gently rolling through the water! To our delight we found a few pairs of Marbled Murreletts diving into the watery depths fishing! Also at Colville Island we found a mature Bald Eagle perched atop the National Wildlife Refuge sign, just beneath a Great Blue Heron sat fishing atop some Bull Kelp floating at the surface and 20 + Harbor Seals were found hauled out on the rocks! We continued on to Salmon Bank where we found our first Minke Whale feeding on the shallow bank! After a few great looks the elusive whale vanished! We then headed towards Hein Bank in hopes to find a second Minke Whale and did just that! This one, larger than the first, proved to be quite friendly giving our guests multiple close looks! The close looks also allowed our guests to actually smell its stinky breath!! The Minke zigged and zagged circling around Hein Bank among Rhinoceros Auklets, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Heerman's Gulls and Harbor Seals that were all hoping to grab a bite to eat along side the whale!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

"We navigated southward down Rosario Strait meeting the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the south end of Lopez Island. We passed the scenic wonder that is the south end of Lopez Island where our eyes gazed upon Colville Island & Castle Rock where the wildlife was bountiful! Pairs of Marbled Murreletts swam, Harbor Seals rested on the rocks, a Great Blue Heron hunted atop a raft of Bull Kelp and Pigeon Guillemots cannon balled into the water creating quite a splash! We continued towards Swirl Rocks where a Bald Eagle was found perched high on the rock! Once at Salmon Bank we noticed an increase in bird activity indicating bait fish just underneath the water! Then all at once a Minke Whale appeared through the small swells that had began to build! It was on its deep dive when its severely arched back would allow our guests a great photo opportunity!! On its decent into a shallow dive it appeared as if the Minke Whale were surfing atop the waves!! After visiting with the Minke we ventured into Cattle Pass stopping at Whale Rocks to visit one smelly pinniped! A very large Steller Sea Lion lounged atop the rock just above its smaller cousin, the Harbor Seals! Venturing into the inner islands we navigated its calm waters finding Harbor Porpoise along the way! Outside Thatcher Pass we headed up Bellingham Channel towards Jack Island where we found a mature Bald Eagle and one huge nest! The afternoon lead us towards Castle Rock and after encountering a building storm we ventured back north up Rosario Strait! Hugging the eastern shoreline we got great looks at the Burrows Island Lighthouse and encountered many Harbor Porpoise feeding in the tide rips! Continueing northward we stopped at Peapod Rocks to visit with some hauled out Harbor Seals! The evening produced much wildlife, however our guests didn't see whales! They however will get another opportunity to see whales with us for free, it's our guarantee!" - Naturalist Kate Janes

"The morning started at the south end of Lopez Island with some special treats for our guests! As we passed through the waters separating Colville Island from Castle Rock we found at least 5 pairs of Marbled Murreletts!! We continued on towards Swirl Rock where we found a perched Bald Eagle sitting high above the Harbor Seals that were hauled out on rocks near the water! Passing back through Castle Rock we found exposed in the low tide a number of Common Sea Stars! We ventured back into Rosario Strait after showing our guests one of the most amazing areas in the San Juans and at Bird Rocks we found the Southern Resident Orca Whales heading southward! We watched as whales could be seen as far as the eye could see. A group of whales split with a portion swimming on both the east & west side of Bird Rocks! We watched as they swam close to its shoreline! We ventured towards mid-channel towards the leading subpod where we found Granny (J2), Ruffles (J1), & the rest of J pod swimming slowly towards Lawson Reef! They were all grouped up nearly synchronized as they surfaced over 20 dorsal fins appeared in a row- like a series of fence posts! Then without warning they began to disperse and eventually made the turn westward towards the south end of Lopez Island! We sat and watched as they crossed the channel while a subpod of about 10 whales followed right behind them! The evening brought us back to the south end of Lopez Island and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca! We found the Orcas just off Salmon Bank heading off shore when we arrived on scene! We watched as the whales breached, spyhopped, taillobed and cartwheeled in the glass calm waters! We even watched as one whale spyhopped 6 times! Our guests enjoyed great looks and heard their exhalations carry across the water as we shut off the engines while the whales began milling in the waters surrounding us! Mega (L41) even gave us a great look at his over six foot tall dorsal fin as he swam right along side our starboard side! Our evening ended at the south end of Lopez Island where yet another pair of Marbled Murreletts was seen! We passed through the waters between Lopez Island and Castle Rock and found hauled-out Harbor Seals, swimming Pigeon Guillemots, and a fishing Great Blue Heron standing on a raft on Bull Kelp! It was truly an amazing day!" - Naturalist Kate Janes