Whale Watching Report

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

6/25/08 J-pod, K-pod, and a Minke Whale Today

9:30 am trip

We started off with fog this morning.  As we left the dock we had our first wildlife sighting with a bald eagle flying close by.  We slowed down at Colville Island to look at a few harbor seals in the fog.  Luckily the fog started to open up as we approached the south end of San Juan Island.  We found J-pod swimming from San Juan Island toward Hein Bank.  The first sub-pod we watched was Slick, J16, Mike, J26, Keet, J-33, Alki, J-36, and J-42.  They were swimming at a steady pace for a long time then decided to turn around and swim back from where they came.  Soon Blossom, J-11, Blackberry, J-27, Tsuchi, J-31, and Mako, J-39 came swimming in to join our first group.  We saw a salmon jump clear out of the water, and the orcas were in hot pursuit.  Within a few seconds one of the orcas did two spyhops.  We said goodbye to J-pod in order to look for more whales.  As we headed northeast we found a minke whale and Captain Carl lined him up perfectly with Mount Baker.  It wasn't long before we found K-pod swimming quickly toward us and J-pod.  We saw Cappuccino, K-21, first and he passed by closely for us to parallel view for a while.  Next Sequim, K-12, and Rainshadow, K-37 swam by for a nice look.  They all were moving pretty fast, and some were porpoising, probably to catch up with J-pod.  What a great morning trip!!  Naturalist Bart Rulon

3:30 pm trip 

Our second trip today started out just like the first one with a bald eagle flying near the dock.  We chose a route through the inner San Juan Islands today.  The weather was beautiful and the islands were scenic.  We saw several bald eagles as we went along.  J-pod and K-pod were swimming north from Henry Island toward Turn Point.  J-pod was in the lead and K-pod was trailing behind.  We decided to take a look at K-pod since they were closer to us.  K-pod was very lively this afternoon.  We started to see some breaching, cartwheels, tail-slaps, and a few spy hops.  We got to see lots of different whale behaviors today.  At one point Captain Carl lined up Mount Baker with the passing orcas.  He told everybody he was going to push the breach button as they passed in front of Mount Baker and walla, two breaches in a row right in front of Mount Baker.  What a great photo opportunity.  The breaching continued with other members of K-pod going airborne.  The newest member of K-pod seemed to be practicing his or her breach technique with breach after breach after breach in a row.  We did get to see close up views of Cappuccino, K-21, Spock, K-20, and Lobo K-26.  On the way back  we motored slowly along Speiden Island and saw close up views of the Mouflon Sheep, Fallow deer, and two bald eagles perched on the rocks.  We had a very entertaining trip this afternoon.  Naturalist Bart Rulon

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