Whale Watching Report

The weather conditions couldn't have been more ideal than they were today. It was sunny and the water was like glass everywhere. That made for lots of wildlife sightings today. In Rosario Straits we could see harbor porpoises all over the place. We slowed down at Colville Island to look at a bunch of harbor seals hauled out on the rocks there, and a bald eagle was perched on the national wildlife refuge sign there too. Shortly after we got back up to speed we spotted a Steller sea lion in the water. We circled around to look at him and captain Carl spotted our first mike whale of the day close by. This whale was coming up slowly with his rostrum coming completely out of the water each time he surfaced. We watched this whale for a while and he gave us several good views before we continued our journey westward. There was plenty of bird activity at the surface and it wasn't long before I spotted another mike whale amongst the birds. We watched this whale for a while before moving on. Another ten minutes went by and Carl spotted another mike whale out at the other side of Hein Bank. This one seemed to be the biggest whale of the day. On our way back toward Lopez Island we spotted a fourth minke whale at Salmon Bank! At Lopez Island we cruised close by Swirl Rocks to look at another bald eagle perched on the top of the island, and we also saw a great blue heron hunting on the bull kelp. At Castle Island we slowed down and watched 6 harbor seals hanging out on the rocks at close range, and we saw a belted kingfisher flying around too. All four of the minke whales gave us a good show today. The weather and all the other wildlife was like icing on the cake.
Naturalist Bart Rulon