Whale Watching Report

Gray skies didn't dampen our spirits today. Resident orcas returned today and gave us a great show. Our wildlife viewing started out really well as we worked south through Rosario Straits. There we saw pelagic cormortants, double crested cormorants, harbor porpoises, rhinoceros auklets, common murrres, and red-necked phalaropes. At Colville Island we watched a bald eagle preening its tail feathers while it was perched on a national wildlife refuge sign. Lots of harbor seals were hauled out on the rocks on Colville Island too. Just as we pulled away from Colville Island we saw a big footprint appear right next to the boat. We slowed down hoping it would surface again to see what it was. A few minutes later a minke whale surfaced. It was the smallest minke whale I've ever seen out here. It surfaced many more times and gave us a few really close up looks before we said goodbye in order to look for the resident orcas. Soon we found our resident orcas just offshore from False Bay swimming southward. It was J and K pods mixed together but spread out over miles. They were actively feeding, and we saw several orcas swimming around in circles in hot pursuit of salmon. Granny, J2, chased down and caught a salmon (see photos), and Ruffles, J1 appeared to do the same. Other orcas we watched at close range included K12, Sequim, K37, Rainshadow, K22, Sekiu, and K26, Lobo, and K33, Tika. K37 breached for us once at close range, and K33 spyhopped right next to Ruffles! Just before we said goodbye to the orcas, captain Carl moved us in for some great views of Lea, K14, and her newest calf K42 (see photos). On the way back toward the dock we managed to find yet another minke whale at the south end of Lopez Island. This was definitely a larger mike whale than the first one we saw! What a great day! Naturalist Bart Rulon