Whale Watching Report

K26, Lobo, does a pectoral fin slap for us

We headed south for our first trip of the day today. At Salmon Bank we spotted two minke whales in a row to start our day off with a bang. Soon after we were on scene with orcas near Eagle Point. We mostly saw J and L pod orcas on the first trip. Ruffles, J1, was one of the first orcas we spotted. Next we saw a group of several females and calves. it was a mix of L-pod and J-pod orcas including L22, Spirit, J19, Shachi, and others. They were rolling around and being very playful with each other. We saw multiple spyhops, and the adults would often push the youngsters up out of the water. These orcas were definitely the stars of the show today. We also had J8, Spieden, swim right over to us and log at the surface for about three minutes. Eventually L89, Solstice swam over and the two of them rolled around for quite a while. Captain Carl lined up Ruffles with Mount Baker in the background to end our viewing with the orcas. On our way back to the dock we spotted two Steller sea lions off Iceberg Point. We also headed southward for our second trip of the day. This trip also started with sightings of two minke whales, but this time it was off Lopez Island. We found orcas swimming out of Cattle Pass within a few minutes after the minke whale sightings. We had members of all three pods swimming quickly out toward open water. Once in open water they spread out into groups and appeared to be feeding. K22, Sekiu, swam by with K33, Tika, and then K26, Lobo swam over quickly and love seemed to be in the air as they neared our boat. At one point we had orcas swimming in every direction. We saw many breaches, and a few spyhops on this trip. The fantastic grand finale came when brothers L88, Wave Walker, and L78, Gaia swam over toward us. We could see them breaching off in the distance, and as they got closer to us Gaia gave us a spectacular breach at close range. This was one of the best days of the year! Naturalist Bart Rulon