San Juan Whale Watching

Today the sun reappeared over San Juan Island!  We had a beautiful cruise out to Haro Strait, with an amazing stop at Whale Rocks to observe Steller sealions.  There were about 10 sealions in Cattle Pass, “shopping” the currents in the pass for their lunch.  A lot of Harbor seals were joining them in the buffet.  As we started out into Haro Strait we noticed lots of birds gathering into groups on the surface.  Hum.  Perhaps something interesting was underneath the birds?  Suddenly Ivan pulled the boat in another direction and sure enough!  A minke whale surfaced in front of us!  We watched and waited for the Minke whale to surface again, which it did.  But then, toward the shore an Elephant seal poked it’s head up, looking like a giant dead head in the distance.  We took a closer look at it, and then noticed Dall porpoise in the distance.  After checking out a few more groups of birds, one group of over 100, we decided to look seriously for the porpoise.  At first it seemed they had all disappeared, but then, everywhere we looked, PORPOISE!  We were able to see many different groups of Dall’s for over 30 minutes!  With the flat water, sunshine, and warm temperatures, it was an incredible afternoon out on the water!  On our way home we spotted a beautiful Bald eagle on a rocky island and many many more Steller sealions, now hauled out on Whale Rocks!~Nan Simpson