Friday, July 23 2010
Our trip today took us north almost to Point Roberts, where there was just one other boat from Vancouver B.C. It was chilly on the way up, but once we were the whales, it started to warm up and act more like July. We stopped at Clement’s Reef to look at some harbor seals and a bald eagle. There were several pups hauled out with their moms. There were also many harbor porpoise spotted on the way north. The body of water we were travelling is called the Strait of Georgia and it is pretty wide open. It’s not the best for bird sightings or much of anything really except for Orcas (if they are there). We have had two other fantastic days this season, and this one rivaled them. Every day out watching whales is beautiful, but some are just better than others. Today was one of them. We saw spy hops, breaches, cartwheels, babies and more babies! And the babies were in a playful mood. We were with J pod. J pod has 28 members which include the oldest female and the oldest male of all three pods; J1 (Ruffles b. 1951) and his mom J2 (Granny est. b. 1911). Ruffles was definitely hamming it up today. Every time we looked out………………there he was. Then he would dive and come up with another group. At one point, quite unexpectedly he showed up right next to the boat. He then turned around and swam right alongside the boat upside down! He is a massive orca; 28 feet and 13,000 pounds. To see that much whale swimming upside down in the water alongside the boat is pretty impressive! We stayed for as long as we could, a couple of hours and then headed home. On the way home we stopped to look at a grey whale carcass that had washed up dead on Samish Island last April. It was towed to the west side of Lummi Island where a necropsy was done. The necropsy was done on April 14th, and now there are only bones left. The eagles, turkey vultures and crows have been feasting. (They will all eat carrion). This grey whale was 38 feet and possibly up to 20 tons. What a great day! Sunshine, orcas and the beauty of the northwest!
All photos taken with a 350x zoom.
