San Juan Whale Watching

Wow!  That’s all I have to say!  Well, double wow!  Although we had seen K Pod yesterday in a very lucky, lucky sighting, we thought they had gone west at the end of the day.  No sightings had been reported today.  We were prepared to spend a lot of time searching, but truly, I didn’t have a lot of hope.  We enjoyed a beatiful trip to the north, saw the incredible exotic game animals on Spieden Island, Harlequin ducks, Bald eagles (count of over 9!!), Harbor seals and we were in the middle of searching for Dall’s porpoise….when…..YES!  One fin, definitely Orca fin, was sighted!!  Perhaps a transient Orca??  Or?  Maybe there were several transients shopping the shore area on San Juan Island?  We headed immediately south and within ten minutes blows started appearing on the horizon!  Lots of blows!  K Pod was heading directly toward us.  They were traveling along at a good clip, in small family groups moving up the coast of San Juan Island.  What a surprise!  We had a great time watching Lobo - K-26 travel along behind his mother, K-14, Lea and younger siblings.  There were big blows coming up behind them too.  Today was my last day on the boat as crew and naturalist for this season…..and I wanted it to go on and on and on.  It was a perfect day….great guests, (with great children), great sunshine, great wildlife, flat seas, AND K Pod!  If the season had to come to an end….it ended with a wonderful memory of the incredible ecosystem we call our “backyard”….and as always renewed focus to do whatever I can do to reverse any harmful human actions and restore the Salish Sea to a healthy habitat for all the animals that call this their home. ~Nan Simpson