Whale Watching Report

Our morning trip started with a sighting of a minke whale at the south end of Lopez Island. This was a very cooperative minke whale that surfaced many times for us. As we watched this whale we also spotted another minke whale in the distance. Soon we peeled off to look at the second whale which was equally as cooperative as the first. This whale spent lots of time at the surface compared to most minke whales. The water was like glass this morning, making for excellent wildlife spotting and viewing. We traveled out toward Salmon Bank next, and spotted several harbor seals in the water, including one with a fish. On our way back toward the islands we spotted another minke whale (Possibly one of the whales we had earlier) and watched him for a while before taking a look at several harbor seals at Swirl Rocks. Among this group were several seal moms with pups.

We headed north during our afternoon trip with word from another boat that had just found 4 transient orcas up in Canada. We cruised through the inner San Juan Islands on the way there. We spotted a bald eagle and some harbor seals on our way up. We finally reached the orcas just across the line for Canada near South Pender Island. It was T19, T19B, T19C, and T18. They were all swimming very close together and they were swimming in a circle pattern almost every time they surfaced. We got some very good viewing of these transient orcas especially because they didn't move very much while we watched them. On our way back through the inner San Juan Islands we spotted another bald eagle perched on a tree and bathed in the warm light of the setting sun. It was a great way to end a beautiful day. Naturalist Bart Rulon