San Juan Whale Watching

Today all three pods were back together again and heading north towards the Fraser River.  We caught up with them between East Point and Point Roberts.  It was one of those days when everywhere you looked to could see groups of about 6-8 whales traveling by.  Here are my shots from today.  My naturalist Shann, who is a wonderful writer, promised a report soon.

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.

What a gorgeous day to be on the water.

This afternoon we headed north in search of Transient Orca whales, Porpoises, Eagles, Harbor Seals, and anything else that might pop up along the way.

Overall the day was beautiful and sunny, except for a few minutes of rain that left us with a wondeful rainbow over the Turn Point Lighthouse. The day was also full of wildlife, although the whales eluded us.  We did find a large group of Harbor Porpoise, which ended up swimming all around the boat, and a group of Dall’s Porpoise showing off their speed by zooming around at about 20 MPH.  We also found a mature Bald Eagle eyeing the lunch of a Harbor Seal, as well as lots of Mouflan Sheep and Fallow Deer on Spieden Island.

What looked to be a pretty dismal day (rain and wind) turned out to be pretty beautiful.  No whales today, but plenty of interesting wildlife.  Here is a report from JB:

We left the dock with no whales in the area (some of the Residents had been spotted heading west past Sooke). So we headed north in hopes that perhaps we’d luck onto seeing something interesting. And we weren’t disappointed!

In Haro Strait, we spotted a pair of Brown Pelicans! For those who know the birds of this area, this is a somewhat rare sighting. Later in the trip we saw two other Brown Pelicans for a total of four sightings. The flat calm water made it easy to see anything moving on the water, and as the rain stopped and the fog lifted, we came across quite a few Dall’s Porpoises near Turn Point. There were porpoises rooster-tailing, and one large group (8-10) approached the boat and we saw two calves! They were so incredibly tiny, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen calves that small.

As we watched them swim past the bow with our engines shut down, we then saw another unusual sighting. A seagull was trying to eat something, and as we drifted closer, we saw that it was a hunk of animal tissue. At first we thought maybe some blubber, so we got the net out and scooped it up for closer examination. Lots of adipose tissue, some muscle tissue and skin. So we double bagged it and will turn it over to Amy Traxler (Assistant Research Curator at the Whale Museum) to examine during the necropsies they are doing on Tuesday. Our suspicion is that it is part of a seal that was lunch for some transients! So it just goes to show that you never really know what you will encounter on a trip!

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

The whole day we had J-Pod and L-Pod going up and down the west side, apparently waiting for K-Pod to come in, who were spotted out west of Victoria, BC.  Then they finally got together this afternoon at the south end of San Juan Island for a beautiful greeting ceremony just as we were arriving on scene.  Perfect timing!

This morning L-Pod showed up on the west side of the island as if they had always been there.  This afternoon was was full of whale fireworks.  More later…..

We had an incredible afternoon with the same large group of Transients from the other day.  Here is a great report from Alison:

Well it is “Super Tuesday” again. I was looking forward to my trip this afternoon with JB & Captain Ivan. I checked in in the morning to find that we had not seen Orcas yesterday and no sightings of them this morning. When I got to the boat I overheard some radio chatter that sounded promising (thanks Cedric). When Ivan arrived at the boat the news was good . . . Transient Orcas had been spotted near Active Pass. We let everyone know that it still was not 100% but we would do our best. They were a wonderful positive group of people and had no doubt that whatever happened it would be special.

We headed north traveling through the San Juan’s and up into the Gulf Islands of BC. We came into the Strait of Georgia via Georgeson Pass. The T’s had been heading south and were now passing the Bell Chain Islets. We approached the scene slowly. Our passengers caught sight of some fins and the excitement was mounting. We had two tight groups with another one further north. We all watched with anticipation as the transients made a very close pass by a rock loaded with Harbor Seals. Many seals were quickly scurrying to the higher ground and a few at the waters edge seemed to get washed into the water with the wave created by the whales. It looked like easy pickings. Both Ivan and JB got great photos of T102’s large dorsal in the foreground a large eyed seal looking at him and Ken Balcomb in the background getting ID shots. The whales passed the haul out with no signs of attack. Then, they turned and headed back. We thought for sure we would see a kill. Instead they went on a very long dive met up with the T124’s under water and surfaced heading east behind the boat. Wow! We ended up with 13 T’s traveling together. Ivan checked the ID’s and reported that we had the T100’s, T101’s some T124’s and a couple T90’s. It was a truly wonderful encounter.

It was time to go so we headed off through Boiling Reef and back to Friday Harbor as the whales headed out into the strait. On the way back we spotted 2 Bald Eagles that ended up fighting over their food on Low Island, and 4 harbor seals in the water. This is my favorite kind of day . . . it starts with no expectations and turns out better than you can believe possible!

Thanks to everyone on board today. Your energy, excitement and love for these amazing animals made our day just that much better.

Alison Engle, Marine Naturalist

We spent a lot of time searching today.  We didn’t find any whales, but we did have a great trip full of wonderful wildlife and beautiful scenery.  I will get more up later…..

Today I received a report of a group of Transient Orcas way up by Vancouver, BC. Fortunately for us, they decided to head south quickly. We had two very long runs to make to see them today, but it was well worth the extra fuel. We had the largest group (about 18) of Transients I have ever encountered. These included: T100s, T101s, T20, T21, T90, T90A, T124s, and others we couldn’t identify.

Not only were they unusually social, but we got to observe them in some of the most beautiful places in the area. Here is a great report from JB:

Well, I’m still reeling from todays trips. Reeling from my expectations not even coming close to the days’ events. It’s not often that we encounter transient orcas, and it seems that usually they are just “passing through” with little fanfare (except for the occasional seal or porpoise that gets munched).

This morning we started our day with reports of some transients pretty far to the north near Vancouver, BC. They were slowly coming south, so we headed north hoping to catch a glimpse of a few fins. Little did we know how our day would really turn out. Once we were near the whales (Northeast of the Eastern entrance to Active Pass), we watched what turned out to be what could best be called a “Transient Super Pod” of 15-20 whales!! The whales would break off into smaller familial groups, only to coalesce into larger groups with lots of surface contacts, rolling on top of each other, and behaviors we typically associate with Residents. Not to be outdone, the transients decided to show us that they could breach as well as residents, and did about 6 breaches! I was amazed!

For our afternoon trip, under threatening skies we headed north once again and the transients had come down a few miles closer to home, making the trip up shorter than the morning trip. And I couldn’t believe it, but the afternoon transients were even more active than before! Dozens of spyhops, tail slaps, tail lobs, headstands, pectoral and tail fluke slaps, and nearly 2 dozen breaches! The topper of the day was a huge breach by T20 himself! We left the whales just as they were going into search mode near a few rocks with seals on them.

Definitely, I’d have to say this was my best transient day in 12 years!

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist

August is usually the month when we see the most Transient Orca Whales (mammal feeding) in the area.  This is most likely due to the all of the just weened Harbor Seal pups.  It is always an exciting time of year for us.  Transients are so unpredictable compared to the Residents (which aren’t exactly like clockwork either).  There is also something very different about watching whales that hunt and kill other mammals as opposed to hunting Salmon.

Today started with a report of Resident Orcas (possibly all of them) heading west out the strait of Juan De Fuca, as they do from time to time throughout the summer.  Then I got a call about T14 (Pender) coming east from Victora.  Great!  He is one of my favorite whales to observe.  We believe that he may circumnavigate Vancouver Island about every 3 weeks or so.  We almost always see him coming East in Juan De Fuca and North up Haro, rarely the other way around.  Just as we were leaving the harbor though Captain Michael on the Island Explorer III called to tell me they had picked up about 8 Transient Orcas at the bottom of Rosario Strait. Even better! We headed east!

I made a positive ID on these whales as the T101s and T100s.  Here is a wonderful report from our afternoon trip by Alison:

After working as a Naturalist in the San Juans for 10 years now I am still surprised that I keep having “firsts.”

When I arrived at the boat I heard that the residents had headed west again, but there was a pod of T’s in Rosario Strait, one of my favorite places to view wildlife. We headed east with the news that the T’s were making headway up the strait with the incoming tide.

As we rounded the top of Sinclair Island we came upon the T101’s. Captain Ivan decided to focus on watching T101 and T102 as the others split off and headed north. These two whales zig zagged back and forth then all of a sudden we saw a few small splashes about 50 yards ahead of T101. She quickly moved in with T102 joining her. There was some splashing then they surfaced several time in the same spot as a “blood slick” formed on the surface. T101 then did two beautiful slow motion spy hops. We were all very excited to see these powerful predators in action. They then seemed to speed off after something else. No apparent kill but then T102, a mature male breached twice. Next they checked out Viti Rocks seeming to pass by many nervous harbor seals. To end our encounter we watched them travel quickly along the dramatic Lummi Island Shoreline with each surfacing their wet dorsal fins glimmered in the sun and rainbow colors formed in their blows.

We peeled off at Lummi Rocks as they joined two more T’s and passed by more seals.On the way home we stopped to look at a Bald Eagle on Pea Pod Rocks. It was a beautiful in the late afternoon light, a splash of orange below it from the lichen Caloplaca, and many harbor seals hauled out on the surrounding rocky outcroppings. Another beautiful day and a “first kill” for both Monika, my co-naturalist, and I.

Alison Engle, Marine Naturalist

Today was a very odd day as far as whale sightings went.

The same group of L-Pod whales from yesterday turned up late in the morning at Deception Pass, heading north.  They then went up Bellingham Channel (I have seen whales heading down the channel often, but never up).  Then later in the day they went up Hale Passage on the east side of Lummi Island.  I talked to captains that have been out here for over 15 years and have never heard of whales in Hale Passage.

Of course, the truly amazing thing today was viewing the day old calf swimming smartly along side of its mother (L47).  What a beautiful sight!  Every new calf is so precious to this population of whales, which lost as many as 3 members this past year.  We will all be watching anxiously over the coming year, hoping to see little L-111 grow and become strong.

This was a very special day for us on the Western Prince. A new L-Pod baby was confirmed by the Center For Whale Research and we were truly honored to have two people aboard that were instrumental in putting an end to Orca Whale captures in Washington State. Here is a wonderful recount of today’s experience from Alison:

This should be an easy report to write, but I am not sure where to begin. I guess I might as well start at the dock! Or maybe two days ago when Ivan let John Boyd (JB) and I know that Ralph and Karen Munro would be coming out on Super Tuesday. After years of telling the stories of the capture era and the magical story of the Memorial service for J-6 “Ralph” (this story still gives me goose bumps after telling it hundreds of times), It was great to hear, first hand, of both the tremendous move by Ralph and a handful of others (including my awesome mother-in-law, Helen Engle) to stop the captures in 1976 and the magical moments at Lime Kiln State Park on that Monday afternoon in August 1999 when a super-pod arrived on time to honor J-6 and Ralph!

Okay, after introductions we are off. We had good reports all around. We headed south in San Juan Channel. Along the way we saw a Bald Eagle, lots of Harbor Seals and (my first) of the returning male Stellar Sea Lions to Whale Rocks. We then headed out to Salmon Bank where we heard we would find some of L-pod and rumors had it the exciting news of a new calf!

We first viewed what we believe were the L-55’s. It was a bit lumpy so I have to apologize for lack of ID’s. We then spotted a Minke and watched it surface several times. I have to concur with Captain Ivan that this was the smallest Minke I had ever seen. Ivan reported the sighting to Dr. Jonathan Stern, who is doing Minke Whale research in the area, in the hopes that would get some good ID photo’s.

Next we moved up towards Eagle Point to see if we could get a look at the new calf. The Center for Whale Research believed the calf to be L47’s, but would need another encounter to confirm the mother. Ivan approached the group carefully. I would estimate that we stayed a safe 250+ yards away. Everyone was delighted to see the little orange tinged calf popping up next to mom.

On the way home JB and I told a few stories and then Ralph treated us to the details of the captures, the work that was done through the night by state lawyers and a special court that was convened on a Sunday morning. After the legal work was complete they still had the task of serving these papers in rough sea conditions as the people capturing the whales where trying to load the Orcas on to barges and move them out of State waters before the restraining orders could be served. In the end the papers were served and the whales released.

What a day! Thank you Ralph and Karen Munro for all that you have done for the whales. Your encouraging words to all of the people on the boat including the four young Law School grads to work for the environment were very inspirational.

Alison Engle, Marine Naturalist

The L12s (a subpod of L-Pod) are usually the whales that seem to spend the most time around San Juan Island.  When the rest of the Residents would head north or west the L12s would often be here.  However, this season they have been almost nonexistent.  That is until today, when the popped up in the most unlikely of places.  Here are my photos and a great report from Monika:

This morning on the Western Prince we heard the Southern Resident superpod had made their way as far north as Passage Island - way north of the northern arm of the Fraser River! It looked like it might be a “no whale day” when Captain Ivan got a call about a potential transient report between Lopez and Shaw Islands. Then he got another call about 3 whales in San Juan Channel near Cattle Point.

After picking up our charter, we raced down to catch up with what we assumed were transients. At first we just saw two whales, but then more fins appeared. Hmmm, these whales seemed to be awfully spread out for transients, and look at all those adult males! Definitely not transient-like. Then we saw the open saddle patch of Skana (L79) and we knew this was part of L-Pod. This was the first time I’d ever seen residents *in* San Juan Channel!

We found Mystery (L85) surfaceing in front of Cattle Point Lighthouse at the southern tip of San Juan Island as the whales moved out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He was traveling with Alexis (L12) and Skana (L79), a couple of whales I hadn’t seen yet this year until the big superpod came in yesterday. The glassy calm waters were beautiful this morning, which made it easy to spot a minke whale from maybe a mile away. Mega (L41) and his sister Calypso (L94) were foraging right near the minke. It was very neat to see these two species so close together. While we were stopped watching them, you could see hundreds of silvery bait fish under the water right next to the boat - probably why the minke was in that area.

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist

All three pods, with all members of the Southern Resident Orca Population were found coming in from west of Victoria this morning. This is the first time this season we have had a Superpod that actually included all of the whales. Here are some of my shots and a great report from JB:

Well, this summer has seen a lot of interesting orca behavior. We’ve had days go by with only half a pod in the area, only to be replaced with the other half a few days later. I think it may be a sign of the decrease in prey availability, but no one really knows. Well, today was definitely different than this years’ norm.

For the first time, we had a COMPLETE SUPERPOD! That’s right, all of J’s, all of K’s, and ALL of L’s came in this morning. We viewed whales coming in about 4 miles east of Race Rocks, and it was so nice to see whales that I haven’t seen yet this year—L41 Mega, L73, J1 and family (too far to ID, but a group of 8 whales surrounded the big guy), J28 Polaris, L67 Splash, and so many more that were also just a tad too far to ID. Whales were coming to the surface in groups of 10- 16, and it was so amazing to see so many whales again. Pages in my ID guide that had sat gathering dust all summer were being used again. As the whales came in, they were doing a lot of spyhopping, breaching, tail slaps and other surface percussives. It was so amazing. It was a long trip, but definitely worth it!

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

We had some unseasonably cool, rainy weather today. Fortunately for us, the rain started just as we were coming in from our morning trip, ended as we began our afternoon trip, and then started again when we returned. Of course, the whales didn’t mind, they are already wet.

This morning J-Pod turned up off of Victoria, heading towards San Juan Island. Yeah! They then proceeded to repeat yesterday’s “West Side Shuffle”. We had lots of foraging, multi directional behavior today. This makes for great whale watching, allowing us to spend a lot of time with our engines off as the whales slice back and forth through the water after their prey. Looks like a lot of Salmon around, which is very good to see.

One of the highlights of today were the 10-15 Oyster Catchers that we found at the south end of San Juan Channel. These are some of my favorite birds, with their shrill cries and bright orange beaks.

This morning we received a report of J-Pod (all of them this time) off of the west side of San Juan Island.  The whole day they did what we like to call the “West Side Shuffle”, meaning that they just bounced back and forth from about Eagle Point (south end of the island) almost up to Lime Kiln Lighthouse and back.  This made it easy on us leaving from Friday Harbor.

Our trip this morning was a private charter for a wonderful group of folks from the Trust For Public Land .  They helped prevent Turtleback Mountain, on Orcas Island, from being developed, making it available for public use instead.  This is something that is greatly appreciated by all islanders.

The photo above from this afternoon is L57 (Faith), by the way.  Yes a boy whale with a girl name.  It is interesting to note that he and a few other L-Pod whales have been hanging around with J-Pod almost the whole summer.  Nobody really knows whether it is a mating thing (L57 has all the J-Pod females to himself, so why leave?) or a social thing, or….  What we do know is that L57 is an awesome animal to observe, almost the size of J1 (Ruffles) and often very active.  We had a beautiful pass from him today.

This morning on the Western Prince we departed from Canoe Island (with
the French Camp aboard for a charter) without an orca report - but as we
headed south down San Juan Channel, we got a report of whales inbound
from Trial Island. We headed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca without
finding out which whales were there, since we were excited enough to get
an orca report at all. We assumed it was some group of residents, since
they’ve been split up into 4 or more groups in the last week or so. As
we approached though we heard over the radio that they had “just made a
kill” - something that definitely refers to the marine mammal feeding
transients! It turns out we were looking at a group of what us
whale-watchers affectionately call “Ts”. As the whales came into sight they were breaching and tail-slapping,
unusual behaviors for the otherwise low-profile transients and something
they usually only do after completing a kill when stealth is no longer
necessary. The one big male in the group, later identified as T20,
repeatedly raised his large, curved flukes in the air and slapped them
down on the water.

T20 travels with female T21, who was also seen in the group. There
seemed to be about 4-5 other whales, and other whale-watchers had told
us the T124s were there.

Resident and transient orcas are the same species, and to the casual
observer look entirely the same. After looking at residents day after
day for many summers in a row, however, I’m amazed at how different they
really are. Transients sound different when they breathe at the surface
(shorter, quieter breaths, probably part of their stealthy instincts).
They also have distinctly pointed dorsal fins. Look at this comparison
between a sharply pointed transient fin on the left and a rounded
resident fin on the right:

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist

Well, once again JPod has decided to divide and conquer when it comes to hunting salmon.

Yesterday we had the J11’s, J22’s, and L26’s, and today we had the rest of J’s (yesterday’s whales are up north where todays whales were yesterday–got it?) Whales were quite spread out off False Bay, and were slowly foraging towards Lime Kiln. It was a classic day however for observing whale behaviors—you could practically use a checklist: tail lob (check), pec slap (check), spy hop (check x 3), vocalizations (classic J calls, check), upside down swimming (check), breaches (check x 3 as well).

First we observed J2 and J1 traveling along with L57, and the rest of the gang. After watching them a bit, we decided to head over to the other group (J16, J26, and I think J33), and observed the “poop sniffers” training Tucker the wonder dog to find scat in the water. Our passengers were quite interested to learn how this collection can yield so much information on the health of the whales as well as giving more clues to what their diet consists of at this point (important considering the current state of the chinook salmon runs!) The 3 “w’s” were once again cooperating (whales, weather, and water). A very fine day for an incredible whale experience.

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

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

We spent a wonderful afternoon with J-Pod today off of the south end of San Juan Island.

I new it was going to be an interesting day when we found a big Stellar Sea Lion fishing at the bottom of San Juan Channel.  Stellars normally don’t start showing up until September.

The whales were very spread out and doing a lot of foraging.  So, I found a nice little group all to ourselves and set up off to the side to observe.  It was a very playful little family group made up mostly of the J11’s.  As we continued offshore with them I started getting some reports of 2-3 different Minke Whales mixed in with the Orca Whales.  We caught a few looks here and there of the Minkes as we went by.  Then we headed over to check out J1 (Ruffles).  He is the oldest (57 years) and biggest (6ft dorsal) male in the population and always a magnificent animal to observe.  The really interesting thing though was that a small Minke Whale was traveling along side of J1 within about 200 yards.  We observed at least 6-8 surfacing with both animals almost in sync.  One thing that makes this so interesting is that Transient Orcas (mammal feeding) are known to prey on Minke Whales, yet these guys looked like best buddies.

One of the things that I love about being out on the water is that you never know what you will find.