Whale Sightings Blog

Our travels today took us past the west side of Lummi Island where we stopped to take a look at two bald eagles. Then northward we went up into the Gulf Islands. They are in the same archipelago as the San Juan Islands, just on the Canadian side. Geologically, they are the same islands, Canada just calls theirs the Gulf Islands. On the way north, we slowed down to look at a group of "rock sausages" (harbor seals) hauled out on Parker Reef. This particular reef doesn't allow us to get close, so we had to view them from a distance. But even without binoculars, they were visible lolling about on the rocks. Also at this time of year there are many sightings of mom and her pup swimming very close together. The pups are anywhere from one to three weeks old now. On the southwest side of South Pender Island we came across J pod. They were very spread out and travelling north. One young female, Rhapsody J32 was on the fringes of the crowd and gave us some really good close up views. Blackberry J27 was also by himself and slapping up a storm with his huge flukes. Ruffles J1, Granny J2, her grandaughter Samish J14 and her four calves ranging in age from 14 years to six months were all travelling together. When the whales got to Swanson's Channel, they grouped up and then there was some action. A spyhop, a couple of breaches, rollovers, cartwheels, and lots of tail lobbing. They appeared to be heading towards Active Pass, a narrow passage that leads out to Georgia Strait. It's a typical route for J pod. Normally, we would follow them through this scenic route, but they were taking their time today in their travels. So we left them and headed for home. A few harbor porpoise were sighted on the way out and on the way back. Our birding consisted of rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, marbled murreletts, a common murre, cormorants, and California, Heerman's and Glaucous wing gulls.

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Today's trip we found the whales in our back yard! All of the San Juan Islands are our backyard, but today the whales were just on the west side of Lummi Island. After a trip across Bellingham Bay and around the corner, there was J pod! Before we started our whale watching we stopped and looked at two bald eagles: one on the east end of Lummi Island and on the west end. (Roslyn and Jimmy at Carter Point.) In Rosario Strait the whales were spread out and foraging. Ruffles J1, Granny J2, Samish and  baby J45 passed right by the boat, as we sat drifting in the currents. Whales were  in every direction! It was all twenty four that are in J pod. When they hit the rip tide where Bellingham Channel starts, there was a lot of action. Spyhops, some breaches, somersalts, and lots of enthusiastic tail slapping. Finally we left the whales and did a close pass by the Burroughs Island Lighthouse. Onward we went to Bird Rocks to see some harbor seals (and of course birds!) On the way a couple of harbor porpoise popped up, but they were being elusive today and we didn't get any more sightings. We went through Lopez Pass and up Lopez Sound. It's a beautiful scenic route between Lopez and Decateur Islands. As we passed close by Frost Island in the middle of the sound there were many purple and orange seastars along the water line. We also saw black oystercatchers and a great blue heron that was perched high in a tree. The rest of our birds today consisted of rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, pelagic and double crested cormorants, glaucous wing gulls and Heerman's gulls. Comments: ("You guys are great - from making the reservations to getting off the boat, thank you!) ("I enjoyed the tour below deck. The naturalist was excellent and made the trip a learning adventure! The boat was a perfect size for this kind of trip. I appreciated both decks!")

Today took us down Bellingham Channel to the south end of Cypress where we encountered J pod and some of L pod. The weather was much better than yesterday. We travelled along at a proper distance with the whales for a couple of hours. They were spread out and in a travelling mode. Then they all stopped just south of Salmon Bank and began foraging. This is when the fun begins! Breaching, somersaults, cartwheels, and some of the wildest tail lobbing! Mike J26, an 18 year old male was continuously taking his whole tail way up and bringing it down over and over. Bob Jones, one of our passengers took some great photos. He would do this eight, nine, ten times, then take a breather. Then again he would start it up. Several times this happened. There were many headstands with the flukes waving around by several different whales. Ruffles J1 was off in the distance with Granny J2, his mom. They are the oldest male and female in all of our resident pods. L pod was mixed in and it sure looked like they all were enjoying themselves. On the way home we went through beautiful San Juan Channel and Peavine Pass. Our bird sightings were slim again today just like yesterday, but we saw: rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, cormorants, and numerous gulls. There were also turkey vultures and bald eagles. There were a few sightings of harbor porpoise, but again, like yesterday, not as numerous as they have been. Many sightings of swimming mom and pup pairs of harbor seals. The pups are still so small, and they stay close to mom. They finally venturing off the rocks and getting fishing lessons. Rusty, our navigator was out for his second trip this season. He hasn't been able to come out much this year. Our next trip will be on Friday the 24th.

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Another beautiful day of sunshine. Unfortunately, the wildlife that we usually see in abundance just didn't seem to be out today! The bird sightings were spotty, (except for bald eagles, they were everywhere!) The numerous harbor porpoise sightings that we usually see were few and far between. We went up over the top of the islands, after stopping to look at bald eagles and harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. We were hoping to encounter our resident whales that were heading east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had also heard of some transient orcas heading south from Canada. So we felt that one way or the other, we would see residents or transients. It didn't happen. The whales were heading east and they were down by Victoria, Vancouver Island coming towards us. The weather was very sloppy down there: five foot seas and blowing with storm warnings. Not anything that we want to get near. Word has it now as this is being written, that they are a superpod in our inside waters now!  We were in Haro Strait and it was getting lumpy, so we ducked into Mosquito Pass. A beautiful scenic route, and then came home through the middle of the islands. Beautiful narrow passages and more bald eagles. As we came into Rosario Strait, another wide passage and deep, we spotted Dall's porpoise! Yes! They are the porpoise who love to come racing up to the boat and play in the bow and stern wake. There were four of them, and they came to play in our bow wake. The water was a beautiful clear green, and we could watch them zig and zag in front of the bow through the water. This was our first sightings of Dall's porpoise this season. They are beautiful. Black and white, 6 to 8 feet, and up to 300 pounds. Sometimes people think they are baby orcas. However, a baby orca would never be left alone by its family. The harbor porpoise that we usually see are boat shy, but the Dahl's porpoise race toward the boat.  They are one of the fastest ceteceans here. They can get up to speeds of 35 mph. They can go so fast as to leave a 'rooster tail' behind them. When they tired of playing, they zipped away. Time to head home. Comments: " I liked everything, the nature/tour cruise around the San Juan Islands." and "We liked the marine biology knowledge and the friendly crew, even though we didn't see orcas." and "Beautiful day, great tour of the islands. Very interesting narration. Love the engine room tour. Great crew!"

It was a beautiful if 'orca less' day. We had heard that they had been sighted heading west last night. This happens, but it also frequently happens that they head back east in the middle of the night within our whale watching range. Today was not one of those days. When we head out in the morning, even if we have received no reports of whales, we're still optimistic. (It has also happened that we knew where they were, and could count on seeing them, only to find them travelling further and further out of our reach as we tried to catch up. More than once this has happened and we've had an 'orca less' day.) We saw two bald eagles on the southwest side of Lummi Island. We went by Boulder Reef to see if there were any harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. They weren't on the rocks, but they were swimming about in the kelp beds there. Our birding today consisted of: caspian terns, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, cormorants, marbled murrelets, common murres, glaucous wing gulls, and Heerman's gulls. We wound up going to the south end of Lopez Island, and spent a couple of hours with five minke whales. They are a baleen whale (for more details see report on June 26th, 2009.) We call them the Slinky Minke, as they spend a lot of time under the water surface, and they don't follow a straight line usually. There were two of them swimming in tandem, which is unusual, as they are solitary whales. However, these two were staying side by side and coming up for air at the same time. We headed back through Bellingham Channel and stopped at a small rocky islet on the east side of Eliza Island. Finally, we saw two harbor seal pups hauled out on the rocks. It's pupping season, and these guys were little! They are 18 to 24 pounds when born, but within weeks they triple their weight before they are weaned. It's always a little disappointing to not see orcas, but as the years go by, they are not in the inland waters all summer as they historically have been. They need to eat 200 to 400 pounds of salmon a day. If the salmon aren't here, then they will be elsewhere. This is one of the reasons our community of resident orcas were put on the Endangered Species Act in November of 2005. This is bittersweet. The fact that they had to be on the ESA listing is not heartening, but it also makes it so that the salmon problem will have to be addressed. When we get to see these magnificent creatures it is a bonus of a day. Good news is that we have three new calves this year, and we've been getting some good sightings of them when we are seeing the whales. Everytime a new calf is born, we all go YEAH!!! Comments: "I thought the trip was great! I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot about wildlife and local history." and "Even though we did not see an orca, Victoria made this a great trip with lots of information." and "Thank you! Enjoyed the knowledgeable crew, we had a great time; loved the animals and birds."

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Today was a whale of a day! Literally. We didn't get to see much other wildlife but the orcas. They were as close as they ever get to Bellingham Bay, just on the other side of Lummi Island. We encountered J and K pods. Twenty four whales in J pod and nineteen in K pod. It was rain, rain, and more rain throughout the day. Fortunately the whales don't care if it rains on their watery world and they gave us some great sightings. There was breaching, spyhopping, somersalts, cartwheels. We had great views of the new baby, J44 with mom Princess Angeline J17. We also had some great views of eighteen year old Blackberry J27 with his little six year old brother Mako J26. Granny J2 was travelling with Ruffles J1, the oldest male in all three pods estimated at fifty eight years. We followed the whales south through Bellingham Channel and then out into more open water. The sightseeing wasn't great, as it was so cloudy. We spent the day pretty much just watching orcas. No one complained.

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Another beautiful sunny day. We have had an unseasonably warm spring and summer. Our usual intermittent rain has not been anything close to normal. Of course, the wildlife doesn't care, they go on doing what they do whether it's rain or shine. Our first stop was to look at a pair of bald eagles on the southwest side of Lummi Island. It's the same nesting pair that have been there for years now. Their nest is close to the south end of Lummi Island that is called Carter Point. So long ago we named them Jimmy and Roslyn. After everyone had a chance to get a good photo, our spotter plane told us he was in the area. He landed close by the boat (it is a float plane that can land in the water: see photo). The artwork on the plane is Native American Haida. Orcas, salmon, red snapper, raven, thunderbird, loon, dogfish and sea lion.  Onward we went to the orcas. They were very spread out and in a travelling mode. We first encountered them at the south end of Bellingham Channel. Since they were so close to Bellingham Bay, we had the whole afternoon to spend watching their playful antics, once they switched from travelling mode. We had breaches, spyhops, cartwheels, somersaults, upside down whales, and even a pass under the boat by an eighteen year old male, J27, Blackberry. Blackberry, his fourteen year old sister J31 (Tsuchi) and six year old little brother J39 were orphaned last year. Blackberry has been a very attentive older brother to Mako, and it's unusual to see him alone without Mako. He must have gotten a babysitter for Mako. As with humans, whales will use teenagers to babysit for them while they go off on their own. Orcas are a tight family group unsurprassed by any other mammal; except elephants. When a calf is born into a pod, it stays there its entire life, whether male or female. They never leave mom! So it's a natural that Blackberry would take over the care of Mako. We also saw K11 (Georgia) travelling by herself. She's usually with her family, but the whales were spread out today. Her estimated birth is 1933. We had a great day with the whales even though they were  spread out for miles, they seemed to be virtually everywhere nonetheless. Our last sightings were J1 (Ruffles), the oldest male in all three pods estimated at 58 years old. Then, as we were about to leave and head for home, L54 (Ino) with her two calves, eight and two year old Indigo and Coho swam by the bow of the boat. They were with two males: nineteen year old L84, (Nyssa) and twenty three year old L74, (Saanich). Well, we know all three pods of our residents were out there today. Together they comprise eighty six whales. Our trip home took us through the middle of the islands. We always call it the scenic route and try to take it whenever we can.  We also had an extra treat today. Our navigator, two and a half year old Airedale pup Rusty was on board. This is only his second trip this season as he and his dad, Captain Terry have not been able to come out with us until now. Rusty loves kids and we had a quite a few on board to give him the extra attention. He likes to goof off rather than do his job. Not every crew is perfect!

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Our nature cruise today took us through the middle of the islands. This is always scenic and makes for great bird watching. Our birds today included marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, cormorants, a great blue heron, rhinoceros auklets, common murres, numerous glaucous wing gulls, and our first sighting of a Heerman's gull. From now on the birding will start getting more varied with larger concentrations of the migratory birds. (At least in the gull world for now.) We passed by Boulder Reef and saw harbor seals hauled out on the reef, and two new pups! It's pupping season and one of these was a very recent birth. It turned out that the whales were across Haro Strait towards Vancouver Island. As we headed out to cross the strait, in beautiful sunshine and flat calm seas, a minke whale surfaced in the distance in front of us. The telltale signs of numerous birds feeding on bait balls should have tipped us off! A bait ball is when all of the fish form a ball with one thought in mind: if I get in the center I won't be eaten. Meanwhile, with a concentration of small fish like that, the gulls surface feed, the harbor seals and porpoise and diving birds are having a smorgasbord, and the minke whales gravitate towards all of the bird activity. For the minkes, it's like a neon arrow pointing with a sign that says "EAT HERE." See previous reports where  I wrote about the minke whale and it's feeding habits and physiology. We went onward to the orcas; they've been out west for a couple of days and were now heading in towards the islands. When we say "out west", we are referring to the western parts of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and even out to the open ocean. When they do this, it's impossible for the whale watching fleet to catch up to them, let alone find them. An occasional fisherman or boater might see them, and that's just the luck of the draw. We first saw J pod, with 58 year old J1 (Ruffles) in the lead. Most of J pod passed by and then we saw K pod and the rest of J pod. A passenger took a great photo of K11 (Georgia) a female born in 1933 (est). and her grandaughter K25 (Scoter). Hopefully soon to be posted. The whales were porpoising, and travelling with quite a few breaks to stop and breach. When it was finally time to head home, there were more whales! l pod was trailing behind. The whales were everywhere and spread out for miles. So we stopped and let them pass by. Three times this happened while we tried to make our exit. Our passengers didn't mind. On the way home we saw many harbor porpoise. An occasional harbor seal swimming along would watch us pass.  Some comments: "Ask the whales to breach in slo - mo, hard to focus camera!" and "This was a very family oriented tour. We really enjoyed our trip." and " I'm a long term tripper! I liked the commentary, cleanliness and comfort of boat, up and down seating options, 'underground tour' (that's the engine room tour) and of course all of the whales and porpoises!"

On our travels today we stopped at Viti Rocks to look at wildlife. Viti Rocks is a small treeless rocky island that is one of our 83 National Wildlife Refuges. From afar it doesn’t look like much, but on closer inspection it is teeming with wildlife. Shiny rock sausages were lounging on the rocks: that’s what we refer to as harbor seals. Pupping season has started and we saw a pup. Cormorants and glaucous wing gulls were guarding their nests from four eagles that were perched on and around the sign saying "National Wildlife Refuge". Two of the eagles were mature with the signature white heads, but the other two were a mottled brown signifying that they were immature. It takes them four to five years to get their white heads. One of the young ones still had some little downy nesting feathers. It must have just fledged. Pigeon guillemots and rhinoceros auklets, diving birds, were skittering about the water. The water is deep here and the kelp beds are teeming with marine life that supplies food for everyone. It's a complete ecosystem. We went through the narrow passage called Peavine Pass and saw more birds, madrone trees, and beautiful scenery.  Harbor porpoise were sighted as we headed down San Juan Channel. Just as we reached the straits, there was a Minke whale!  We watched it surface a few times, but the orcas were in the background and we were anxious to go see them. It was L pod.  We watched breaching, spyhopping, taillobbing and general foraging and milling. Looking behind us we saw more whales coming. It was part of J pod, and J1, Ruffles swam right by the boat and everyone got a good view of his huge wavy dorsal fin. Hence the name Ruffles. J pod had been far north earlier, and must have travelled fast to join up with the L's. Word gets out in the whale world when the feeding is good! We saw one of the new calves with its mom, but it was hard to tell which one of the three new ones it could have been. What a day! Comments: "The narration was exceptional, and all the wildlife was beautiful, especially the whales."

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 We went out to Haro Strait today to see the orcas. Off of the southern end of Lopez Island we stopped to observe harbor porpoise. They were quite numerous feeding off the edge of a large kelp bed. They eat small fish and squid. They are only 150 pounds, and five to six feet long. Boat shy and not very acrobatic like other porpoise, we usually don't slow down to take a look at them. However when we  encounter a large school like this it is exciting. Right after this we spotted a Minke whale. We saw it surface a few times and then went on our way. Our next stop: the orcas! We saw J pod and L pod. They were spyhopping, breaching, taillobbing and generally milling about and foraging. Two whales came close to the boat rolling around each other. It was J17,a sixteen year old female called Polaris and adult male L74, Saanich. They didn't appear to be fishing! To see them swim under the water so close and then under the boat is to experience a magical ballet of proportions hard to convey with just mere words (or pictures). The whales in the deep blue-green sea water with the sunlight dappling through create a piece of art unsurpassed in our world of land and air. J16, Slick and her two year old calf gave us a close up look as they swam by. Heading home took us through Mosquito Pass, a beautiful narrow passage that leads us past Roche Harbor on the north end of San Juan Island. The harbor was a virtual freeway of boats since it was the Fourth of July. We went past Speiden Island to see the Sika deer that had been imported back in the sixties. Comments:  " I loved all the tidbits about the islands and how knowledgeable the staff were. Good books and very kid friendly cruise." (Our library keeps expanding with each new excursion that the crew takes to learn more about the islands and the wildlife.)

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