San Juan Whale Watching

This morning we had a report of some Transient Orca Whales west of Victoria, BC coming east.  It sounded promising.  Then, a boat that was heading over to the Transients stumbled upon a Superpod!!!  All three of our Southern Resident pods were coming back in!

This afternoon we ran down San Juan Channel to the south end of San Juan Island.  Our first sighting was of a Harbor Seal devouring a large Salmon.  Then we found a Stellar Sea Lion (average 2000 lbs and 12 ft long) foraging near Deadman Island, where about 20 Harbor Seals were hauled out.  The Orca Whales were heading our way so I decided to take a little time to look for a small Minke Whale that has been spotted in the area the last few weeks.  The water was flat calm and glassy.  Perfect for finding Minke Whales.  We were scanning and scanning, and then one just popped up in front of my binoculars.  We watched for several beautiful surfacings and then headed over to find most of L-Pod right off of Salmon Bank.

As we watched small groups of Orcas go by, a California Sea Lion popped up right next to the Salmon Bank Bouy.  At one point you could look East and see the Minke Whale, West to see the Sea Lion, and pretty much all around us were Orca Whales foraging and travelling slowly East.  We stayed with L-Pod as they meandered east through the calm water, with several Spy Hops, Tail Slaps, and some Breaching as they went.  Soon, we found ourselves all alone with the whales.  We were the only boat left.  This is a pretty rare thing in August.  So I decided to stay an extra half hour to thoroughly enjoy the experience before heading back home.

On the way back in we found 3 Stellar Sea Lions foraging in Cattle Pass.  This is a good sign.  We should start seeing Stellar Sea Lions pretty regularly soon.