Whale Watching Report

9:30 Trip
This morning we headed north since our orcas were last spotted up in Canada last night. Along the way we stopped at Peapod Rocks to look at a bunch of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks. A bald eagle was perched there and he took flight and landed again close by for a great photo opportunity on the landing. We spotted three harbor seal moms with pups on the rocks. Soon we found resident orcas just across the border on the south end of Saturna Island near Java Rocks. We saw members of all three pods today. L57, Faith was one of the first orcas we identified. These orcas were swimming within a few feet of shore and they were very active, with spyhops, breaches, and tail lobs. Faith breached for us three times!! Later K20, Spock, joined in on the fun breaching four times at close range. The orcas approached Java Rocks and many of them played in the kelp, and appeared to find some fish in there too, with all their changes of direction. Blackberry, J27, was one of the orcas that spent a lot of time near the kelp going back and forth. After Java Rocks many of these orcas started breaching again and again. What a show they put on for us this morning. Naturalist Bart Rulon

3:30pm Trip
We expected to be heading back out to find the same orcas we spotted this morning, but our plans changed when a Washington state ferry captain told us he spotted some orcas in Thatcher Pass a half an hour before we started our second trip. So we searched hard for orcas in Rosario Straits, and sure enough, we spotted them way off in the distance within ten minutes of looking. These orcas were spread out just east of Decatur Island heading south. Most of the orcas were members of J-pod and they were pretty active. We saw several breaches as we got on scene. We spent lots of time with Speiden, J8, Slick, J16, the youngest member of J-pod, J42, and J26, Mike. Mike breached for us once early on and then later as he approached our boat he breached three times in a row at close range. I was so excited that I was shaking as we watched him go airborne at such close range! We also got several close looks at Slick, J16, and her calf J42 swimming side by side. The orcas were taking us toward Deception Pass so after we had spent lots of time with them we decided to peel off to take a look at Williamson Rocks and Deception Pass. At Williamson Rocks we spotted a harbor seal eating a salmon at the surface, and later we noticed that her pup was swimming with her as she ate it. On the Way home we stopped by Burrows Island and saw two adult peregrine falcons near their nest cliff. What a fantastic day out on the water!! Naturalist Bart Rulon