Saturday, June 20th

Not only did we get to see whales today, but because of their location we were able to take the scenic route. We took the beautiful narrow passes that take us right through the middle of the islands. This is always a great start because of the bird sightings. Today we saw marbled murrelets, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, cormorants, and numerous gulls . We arrived to the south side of Stuart Island, and there were the whales! It was J-pod travelling north and very spread out. Ruffles, J1 gave us a really good photo shoot as he passed by the boat. Granny, J2 was not far behind. There were some breaches by the juveniles, and we sighted the new calves born in February (there are two). The whales were playing in the kelp as they went by. The bull kelp can grow to up to 100 feet. The whales like to swim through it and drape it around their dorsal fins and tails. We hope the whales are here to stay for awhile. This is our second day in a row spent with J-pod. There were other whales, but we never got close enough to I.D. them. (Probably part of L-pod). Some comments: “Great naturalist – knowledgeable, personable. Boat was comfy and we saw lots of whales!” “Great job; great to see the engine room, and whales!” “Thank you for a wonderful experience for our 21st anniversary!”