Friday, June 26th
Today we knew the whales were out in Haro Strait. The reports we were getting: they were headed north, they were headed south, and they were headed north again. They were doing the San Juan shuffle. We started out going through the middle of the islands, then decided to head north over the top end of Orcas Island and continue west where we thought we would meet them in the north end of Haro Strait. We wound up doing a left turn and going south down San Juan Channel. We were now doing the San Juan shuffle! When we came out of the channel we went towards Salmon Bank southwest of San Juan Island. The whales! They were in all directions, foraging, meandering, breaching and spy hopping.
As we were looking off in the distance at the orcas, an unusual fin appeared in front of the boat. It didn’t look quite right. Then this finned creature came right up in front of the boat going across the bow within ten feet. Well, it wasn’t an orca, it was a Minke Whale! It came up so close, that when it exhaled, P U!! The wind was just right and it saturated us with Minke breath. There is no way to describe Minke breath. It is odorous, to be polite. This was one of the littlest Minke whales I have ever seen. It might have been a just weaned calf. The nursing period for these whales is not very long, and unlike the orcas, they don’t stay with their moms their entire lives. We watched the Minke travel off, and then saw that there were two Minkes. They are usually solitary whales. However, sometimes we will see two or three in an area. A Minke whale is a baleen whale, not a toothed whale. They gulp a large volume of food filled water into their mouth. Its throat stretches like a big balloon, and as the whale closes its mouth and contracts the throat pleats the water is forced out through the baleen. The organisms are left in the mouth and the whale wipes them off the baleen with its tongue and swallows them. They can get up to 35 feet and 15 tons, although the average is 27 feet and 10 tons. That’s still a lot of whale! They can be difficult to spot because they spend less time at the surface than other whales and they don’t follow a straight path. Researchers call them the “Slinky Minke”. We watched the Minkes for awhile, and then went back to watching the orcas.
The whales were everywhere we looked. We I D’d most of J pod, and some L’s. What a fabulous whale watching afternoon. As we finally turned to head for home, we encountered the Minkes again. This time we saw one lunge feeding. This is when they come up from the depths and it looks like a half breach as it gulps up food filled water. On our way home we stopped at Bird Rocks to look at cormorants and the harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. There were harbor porpoise all over this area. We don’t slow down to look at them, because they are boat shy.
Beautiful weather, great whale watching, scenery and wildlife. Does it get any better?
One of our passengers didn’t think so: “The boat ride was worth the price of admission. The whales were the frosting on the cake. You do a great job.”
