J-Pod Sighted This Morning!
The Island Explorer 3 is headed into the Salish Sea to see Orca Whales! Stay tuned to the Whale Report for details on today's adventure from Naturalist Bart Rulon. 2:15PM update: Captain Carl just called in to report that the Island Explorer 3 is on-scene with a Superpod! Yes, indeed, a superpod of J, K and L pod orcas came in from way out west today. They were grouped up in several small and large groups when we arrived. We mostly saw L-pod and J-pod orcas from our location. The group we spent the most amount of time with included Saanich, L74, Skana, L79, Solstice, L89, and a couple of unidentified females. on many occasions they all surfaced at the same time, making for some great photo opportunities. As the orcas got closer and closer to the San Juan Island shoreline they all started to spread out and look for fish. One orca did a cartwheel, and another, young orca breached five times in a row in the distance! It was harder to keep track of the orcas as they spread out to do some fishing, but Saanich surprised us all by swimming right over to us. Captain Carl shut down the engines, and Saanich proceeded to swim right under our bow pulpit. Passengers on the bow were all amazed! They were able to look right down on this big male orca! Other orcas we saw included Blackberry, J27, Ruffles, J1, Flash, L73and many more. On our way back to the dock we cruised through the inner San Juan Islands and saw two big steller sea lions in Cattle Pass. Other wildlife sightings today included all three species of cormorants, harbor porpoises, harbor seals, common loons, common murres, marbled murrelets, and rhinoceros auklets. We had some rain but it didn't keep the wildlife away!! Naturalist Bart Rulon
posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 2:07 PM
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