We must have had some good whale karma today, because both trips were amazing!  Here are some of my photos and a great report from my naturalist, JB.

We had early morning reports of J-Pod near Lime Kiln Lighthouse. But the reports only could account for about a dozen whales, so we decided to go South to Cattle Point and see what we could find. Capt. Ivan’s hunch proved a good one, as we came across whales near Eagle Point.

They were very spread out, and foraging in many different directions, so we waited patiently (hard to do sometimes when you have 28 passengers ages 14- 16!) and soon we were able to see whales close enough to pull some IDs. First came J27 Blackberry, who’s dorsal fin seems to loom larger every time I see him. We dropped the hydrophone in and were hearing lots of faint calls at first, and then they grew stronger as more and more whales began to show up. Before long, we also were able to ID J11 Blossom, the J22’s (J22 Oreo, J34 Doublestuff, J38 Cookie), some of the L26’s (which this year must think they are J’s). Amidst all the whales swimming in all directions, passing the boat several times, we had a very nice visit with J31 (Tsuchi), who decided to log on the surface for a bit. Then she lifted her head and gave the kids a very loud, 6 second surface vocalization. It was great to see the kids get so excited by this (and the naturalist too!)

As we left the dock for our afternoon trip, we got a call that there were some whales in New Channel (the channel between the Cactus Islands and Speiden Island). Capt. Ivan has always been speculating on why we don’t find more transients in this channel since it seems to be harbor seal central.

So off we went up north to see if these were wayward residents or transients. Turns out they were transients, and we were able to ID T20 (with his distinctive notch), the T124’s, and I heard we also had T90. We called the Center to let them know, so they will be able to confirm the IDs. We watched them as they slowly moved down San Juan Channel, and we last left them passing Reid Rock near the entrance to Friday Harbor. Just before we left, we saw what appeared to be either a large harbor porpoise (or maybe a Pacific White sided dolphin?) leaping out of the water a good 3-4 feet a ways ahead of the transient pack). I can only speculate that this poor animal somehow knew transients were heading his way and decided that it was best to speed out of the way before he became supper. An incredible day indeed!

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince