Whale Watching Report

The morning trip took us through a beautiful tour of the inner islands, complete with a mysterious layer of fog. We saw a couple of bald eagles soaring over the trees, then one of them landed in a tree, giving us a great look! As we made our way through Speiden Channel, we came upon members of J-pod whales! When we got on scene, they were sleeping and right on the fog bank. After about two breaths, one whale spyhopped, indicating that nap time was over. Another spyhop, then they split up into different groups. We were able to identify Ruffles, Granny, Riptide, Hy'shqa, Suttles, Tsuchi, Speiden and Samish. We had a couple more spyhops, two breaches and a tail lob! Right when we left scene, the whales headed back into the fog! It was perfect timing! We did a slow down near Speiden Island and saw two mother and two baby harbor seals. We watched them wiggle their way back to the water. Also a bald eagle was soaring over the island as well. We headed back through the inner islands. It was a gorgeous morning to spend on the water with some J-pod whales.

The evening trip took us down Rosario Strait, where we found some harbor porpoise. At the south end of Colville Island, we found some harbor seals hauled out warming themselves up on the rocks. As we approached the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the fog bank rolled in. It was awesome heading through the fog. The fog started to clear, right when we caught up with the rest of J-pod that we didn't see on the morning trip. The first whales we had a chance to see were Blackberry and Mako. Blackberry even breached once for us! We moved on to Doublestuf and Oreo. Doublestuf gave us a great "swim-by." Off in the distance, we could see a couple of babies playing around, so we headed in that direction. We found Polaris and Tahlequah with their new babies! Both of these sisters just had their first calves within the last 9 months or so. So the new calves are actually cousins and they were having a great time playing around with each other! They were breaching and spyhopping and tail lobbing! It was so cute watching them get acquainted with their bodies and learning new moves! We spent the majority of our time watching these little guys. As we left scene, we caught up with Doublestuf one more time, he was definitely going after a fish! We left and headed home. Then Captain Carl found us a minke whale! We watched a couple of dive sequences before we had to get going. So we had a double header! Two whale species in one trip! We did a slow down through the south end of Lopez Island and Castle Rock; we found some harbor seals, black oystercatchers, rhinoceros auklets and even an osprey. The bait fish were also jumping out of the water like crazy! It was quite a sight. It was a spectacular night on the water with orcas and a minke whale!