September 12:

OK, it is no secret that I love September whales.  We had two trips yesterday, and it was an amazing contrast between the two.  On our morning trip, we had reports of most of L-Pod moving up the west side of San Juan Island.  We were able to arrive just south of the Turn Point Lighthouse as the leaders approached.  The whales were semi-spread, and it was interesting to watch several orcas approach and pass a purse seiner as he was setting his nets, with one female even doing a very high spyhop!  As we watched, we were surprised to have L79 & L88 show up from a very deep dive almost touching each other with every surfacing.  L79 was doing very high chin ups on ever surfacing.  The lighting was absolutely magnificent.   After the whales had passed, we wanted to get a look at the lighthouse and we were just northeast of the light when more L Pod whales arrived.  And it was one of those magical moments that will live for a long time in the memories of everyone aboard—L74 decided to announce his presence with a breath-taking breach! The water was backlit and it almost looked like he had a water halo!

For the afternoon trip, we had a super pod of whales spread over several miles south of Point Roberts.  The whales would come up in large groups, and appeared to be in a resting pattern.  We sat transfixed from 400 yards watching the whales pass in front of Mt. Baker, with the water almost flat as glass.  As the whales slowly moved along, we were able to get some IDs.  In one large group we had J1 Ruffles, J2 Granny, J27 Blackberry, J22 Oreo, and several others that I couldn’t ID as Ruffles’ huge dorsal fin blocked their saddle patches!  It was so incredible to see 20+ whales on the surface simultaneously.  We left the whales just north of Alden Bank.

John Boyd (JB)
SSAMN Marine Naturalist, Western Prince
Friday Harbor