Whale Watching Report

We headed north today with a report of J-pod up near East Point headed north. We knew timing was important so we managed to made it off the dock 15 minutes early. As we worked our way up we saw several bald eagles and harbor porpoises. By the time we reached the north end of Lummi island we realized that J-pod was moving north way too fast and they were too far away for us to reach them so we changed our plans. We turned around and motored south to look for whales . At Peapod Rocks we found lots of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. We planned to work our way toward Salmon bank but we found three minke whales near the southeast corner of Lopez Island before we could get that far. Our first close up viewing of a minke whale was a breach! Then we saw several lunge feedings. We watched this first minke whale for a while then we moved south to watch a second one that Mark spotted. This minke was active too showing several lunge feedings and close encounters and a breach! We also spotted a third minke whale in the distance. Knowing we could come back and find these whales again we peeled off and looked at Castle Rock and Colville Island for more variety. Was saw two bald eagles, one each on the south end of Lopez Island and Colville Island. Next we looked for our minke whales again and we maneged to find all three of them not far from where we left them. All the breaching and lunge feeding made for a great minke whale day today! Naturalist - Bart Rulon