Whale Watching Report

Our wildlife viewing started right away on our first trip of the day. With a low tide many common sea stars were visible at the Cap Sante Marina breakwater. Then we spotted a harbor seal, a bald eagle and two great blue herons within the first five minutes. We would eventually have to travel 30 miles in order to find a humpback whale off the Olympic Peninsula. The long trip was worth seeing this very cooperative humpback whale that surfaced many times for us in the midday sun. For our second trip we started spotting bald eagles on Lopez Island, and then again on Colville Island. Next we traveled west toward massive flocks of birds that were feeding on bait balls near Salmon Bank. It wasn't long before we spotted our first minke whale feeding along with the birds. This was a very cooperative minke whale that gave us some awesome viewing at close range. With so many fish around he stayed in the same vicinity for a long time. We eventually spotted two other minke whales feeding in the same area. After watching our star minke whale we cruised over to watch a bunch of Steller sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks. Right after we arrived a sea lion swam in and attempted to haul out on the rocks with his buddies. It caused a bunch of commotion among the other sea lions that didn't want to give up their spots. After watching the sea lion drama we cruised along the southern shoreline of Lopez Island and stopped to look at three more bald eagles, and a harbor seal mom with her pup as the sun was setting. It was a good day on the water. Naturalist Bart Rulon