Whale Watching Report

L78, Gaia, and L2, Grace surface together.

Our wildlife viewing today started in Rosario Strait with several harbor porpoises surfacing. Next we found a minke whale on the south end of Lopez Island. Captain Carl also thought he saw an orca surface just before the minke whale did, but after lots of looking it didn't surface again. We headed westward and spotted orcas offshore of Eagle Point. It was L-pod, and the first two orcas we watched were L85, Mystery, and L22, Spirit. These two orcas were swimming erratically looking for fish. Next L79, Skana swam by and he gave us some great viewing. L41, Mega also swam over, and we watched him for a while. Next we watched a small group of females and youngsters including L77, Matia, L94, Calypso, L113, and others. They were all being very playful with each other, and they seemed content to just swim in circles rolling around spyhopping, tailslapping, and coming out of the water belly up on many occasions. Just before we left the scene Mega swam over to join this group that included his sisters. On our way back toward the dock we were fortunate enough to find the orcas that Carl must have seen briefly earlier in the trip. It was L2, Grace, L78, Gaia, and L88, Wave Walker all swimming together offshore of Blakely Island. They changed directions on several occasions as they appeared to be chasing fish. Just before we had to say goodbye Carl lined up the orcas with one of the Washington state ferries in the background for some nice photos. Naturalist Bart Rulon