Whale Watching Report

We had lots of playful activity with our superpod today!

We started out our trip cruising south to look for whales. At the south end of Lopez Island we spotted a couple of bald eagles, great blue herons, and some harbor porpoises. Soon Captain Carl got a call that orcas had been spotted north up near Point Roberts so we changed our direction and started heading north. As we entered Cattle Pass we spotted a big Steller Sea Lion cruising along in the current, giving us all a great view. We reached an orca superpod a few miles north of Patos Island. It was J, K and L pods cruising south, and they were breaching as we approached from a distance. Ruffles, J1, and several L-pod females were in the first group that swam close to us. As they got close one orca came flying out of the water doing a full cartwheel!! Orcas seemed to be everywhere in small groups spread out over a mile or two. Mike, J26, came in for a close up look. Every group seemed to be playful at one time or another doing breaches, spyhops, cartwheels, and tailslaps!! It was awesome. In one group three different orcas seemed to be having breaching contests one after another, after another! In another group a female orca did a really tall spyhop right in front of us at close range!! Words can't describe how much action we saw today because it seemed to be nonstop. Even when we were pulling away we had a double breach with two orcas breaching at exactly the same time!! What a great way to end a perfect day. Naturalist Bart Rulon