San Juan Whale Watching

For the past few days the whales have been doing some interesting things by mingling families, and splitting up into several groups, and covering different areas. Today the call came in at the last minute, that first, “one” whale had been located in the southern end of Rosario Strait….and then in about 15 minutes, a few more, and then well, it was J-pod! We worked out way to the south having lots of time to view Harbor seals on Shark Reef and an adult Bald eagle that turned magically into two Bald eagles on Turn Island. For the “birding folks on our cruise we found Pelagic cormorants, Rhinocerous auklets, a Western gull, Double Crested cormorants and Black Oyster Catchers. The tidal exchange was pretty amazing in itself, and several times we shut down the engine and watched the swirling waters as the tide rushed into San Juan Channel! Once we were out into the Strait, the water flattened out and we kept our eyes focused to the East. Sure enough, the fins began to appear! We had wonderful viewing of J-2, Granny as she slid along the south end of Lopez Island along with J-27, Blackberry. Princess Angeline gave us a nice look at her saddle patch, and Polaris, J-28. We were able to cruise along in the current and fairly flat water and watch the whales for a long, long time today! Finally, Ruffles’ majestically tall fin appeared on the outside of the whole group and he moved along, stopped to turn and forage, and then took up the westerly direction again. About the time we saw a second set of fins appear coming toward the J family from the west, we decided to lower the hydrophone and see if we could detect any vocalizations. WOW! It seemed there was a lot of “conversation” going on out there! As we turned into Cattle Pass to work our way back to Friday Harbor, the J’s and K’s headed toward one another, out by the Salmon Bank bouy. It was one of those evenings when everyone would have liked to stay on and on! Nan Simpson - Marine Naturalist