I haven’t posted a blog in a little while. It’s not that not much has been happening - its actually been a very interesting week out on the water. Here’s all the latest and greatest news:
The orcas have only been around very sporadically for the past few days which is quite typical for the month of August (back in 2001 the resident orcas left the area for weeks in August). Perhaps the Chinook salmon are not as plentiful as they are in other summer months or maybe the whales just need a change of scenery so to speak. For whatever the reason, the whales have been traveling out west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca intermittently over the past days. They don’t seem to be going far, however. They may be gone for one day and then back the next depending on the tides and their food source. We always miss them when they travel out west toward the huge Pacific, but that’s not to say there isn’t a whole diversity of animals to see when they are not around…
Minke whales seem to plentiful! I have had some of the best encounters with minke whales over the previous 10 days than I’ve had in my entire 10 years working in the San Juans. Minke whales are a small (about 30 feet long max) baleen whale that appear to be found in this area year-round. Minkies are the most plentiful whale specie in the world and can be found in almost any ocean. Sometimes minkies get a bad rep because they are a little bit harder to watch than some whale species - they don’t really have a visible blow when they take a breath, they travel in unpredictable directions (why we often call them “slinky minkies”), they don’t exhibit a lot of percussive surface behaviors (i.e. breaching, spyhopping, tail-lobbing, or fluking), and when they come up to breathe you only see a bit of their back and a very tiny dorsal fin (in other words, if you blink, you will miss them). So now you’re probably thinking, ‘wow, minke whales must not be very fun to watch’. WRONG! Nothing could be further from the truth and we have to show the minkies some love because they are truly wonderful in their own way. One of the most exciting things I have experienced in the past few days was watching a minke whale feed. The south end of San Juan Island is a very exciting place to hang out. This year there have been bait balls (big schools of small fish - minke food) everywhere in this area. You can always tell where these bait balls are because of all the various types of marine birds squealing and squawking in tight groups at the surface of the water. The birds remind me of a group of young kids diving for candy after a pinata has been cracked open. MINE! MINE! MINE! Suddenly all the birds will lift off the water as a giant mouth erupts through the surface engulfing all those tiny fish! A minke whale! Wow, is this ever a neat sight to behold! After this happens the birds always seem to be a bit dismayed. They settle back on the surface of the water and become very quiet.
Lets also not forget that minkies are very curious creatures. I remember one instance last summer where a young minke whale circled our boat for several minutes laying on it’s side staring up at the crowd of people that were thrilled by it’s presence. This summer has been exciting in that I’ve had a few trips where a minke has surfaced very close to the boat almost as if to check us quickly before continuing with the business of feeding.
One other interesting thing I have observed this summer is that I have frequently seen minkies hanging out with our resident orcas. A month ago, L78 “Gaia” was swimming by himself near False Bay and for a while, he had two minke whales swimming on either side of him. A few days after that we were watching the K12 subpod play together off the south end of the island and there was a minke whale in the mix playing right along side the youngsters of the group. Several days ago I watched the J22’s, the J17’s, and the J11’s surf waves in Spieden channel with a minke. Minkies may not be as cosmopolitan, “showy”, or as acrobatic as the orcas, but one thing is for certain - they have their own interesting and carefully guarded secrets. It just goes to show that we humans will never truly figure out what is going on out there.
While it has been an educational endeavor viewing minkies over the past week, our resident orcas were back in the area today and were hanging out on the south end of the island for a good chunk of the day. There is a record-breaking salmon run occurring in the area. Experts say there are 30 million sockeye salmon migrating up the Fraser River this year! This is the biggest sockeye salmon run since 1913! However, having said this, we still don’t know for sure if the orcas feed on sockeye very often. We know that about 95% of their diet is made up of Chinook salmon. Like I always tell our guests on the boat - you can think of these orcas as very picky little kids that only eat macaroni and cheese from a certain restaurant. Our resident killer whales eat primarily Chinook salmon from the Fraser River!
Today we saw most of K pod, the J11’s, the J17’s, the J22’s, and L87 “Onyx” on the south end of San Juan. They were very spread out and there was so much foraging behavior going on it was amazing! Near the end of our trip the whales began to group up near the shore line and started to travel slowly up island. They seemed to be in a frisky mood. Perhaps their tummies were full and it was time to play. We witnessed much socializing. While they were playing together, we put the hydrophone in the water to see if the whales were chatting to each other. A beautiful symphony of orcas calls flooded the speaker on the boat. What I wouldn’t give to understand what they are saying to each other…
Here are some pictures from today’s encounter:

Playtime! A youngster rolls at the surface while playing with a friend:

~Katie

What to do?  Transient Orca whales to the north….Resident Orca whales to the west….hum.  What great choices!  Captain Hobbes turns the Western Prince toward Cattle Pass and Haro Strait.  It is a long run to Canadian waters, but we have high hopes.  Sunshine, warm weather and flat seas welcome us to the big expanse of water between San Juan Island and Vancouver Island to the west.  The long trip pays off as we see fin after fin gliding toward San Juan shores!  First, the excitement of the L-47’s with the newest member of L Pod, little L-115.  This calf is barely a week old and the mother and siblings are keeping it tucked tightly between their huge bodies.  Midnight, the three year old family member races along side too!  What great viewing due to the calm seas and sunshine!   All afternoon we cruised from one group of Southern Residents to another, as the Super Pod slowly moved from west to east.  There are fins everywhere and the adult male fins seem especially tall today.  Can you pick out a little calf poking it’s head up by mom’s fin in the photo above?

~Nan

What a sight!  Whale fins cut through the water’s surface and blows fill the air.  Whales!  They head directly for the Lopez Island ferry landing and present quite a show for all the ferry passengers who line the decks!  Many, many L Pod whales, males, females, then some K Pod whales…breach and cartwheel their way down Upright Channel.  The small ones seem to take on the challenge of multiple breaches…could it be a contest?

Splash, smack,  tons of whale bellies hit the water!  Ohhh, Ahhhh, whale watcher voices fill the air!

Down by Whale Rocks, Steller sealions cruise out to Haro Strait.  All the way back up San Juan Channel, whale blows stand out along the shoreline.  More speed swimming, more porpoising, more and more groups of whales all pointing to the west.

What an outstanding day!

~ Nan

A Tufted Puffin!!!  My eyes lock on to the white dot bobbing on the water in the one o’clock direction.  Could it really be….a Tufted Puffin???  Yes!  This is my first sighting this season, and only my third sighting ever.  The Rhinocerous Auklet is seen frequently in these waters, but this “relative” is a rarity.  What a great start to the trip today!

We head out into Haro Strait and to the north fins appear.  Then surprise….more fins to the starboard side, one nice mother and off spring pair moving toward Canada.  A few large male fins draw us further up the strait as we watch the whales cross the international boundary with ease.

The afternoon trip brings us to the same area.  More and more whales move to the north toward the Fraser River.  The news flows that whales from every pod are there.  A Super Pod might mean that the water is rich with salmon….enough for many whales at once.  I hope so.

Along the way back we check out a wildlife refuge island and find Harbor seals as they bask in the late afternoon sunshine and two Adult Bald eagles on a low tree branch survery the water.  Time to turn for home….

~ Nan

Finally, a morning without fog!  Yippee!  But are the whales?  We pull out of the dock right on time and head south as that was where the whales were last night.  On our way we notice two fledgling Eagle chicks, as they perch on the edge of their nest,  an adult Bald eagle near by.  Harbor seal pup heads dot the water off Goose Island.  Once into Haro Strait we stop to scan the water.  News comes in that the whales are out of our range and we hope they will continue in our direction.  Suddenly a Steller sealion surfaces carrying a huge Skate in his mouth!  He swims around the boat and tears the Skate into pieces with his powerful jaws.  Then a Minke whale surfaces in the distance.  We watch for a long time as the whale surfaces near big congregations of birds and finally makes a lunge right through the birds!  Bird for breakfast anyone?  Another Steller pops up off the stern and a few Harbor seals glide by.  The Orca whales remain out of our range this morning, but we find more Harbor seals on rocky shores and another adult Bald eagle as we motor back to Friday Harbor.  What an incredible morning!

Our hope for the afternoon is high.  The tide is about to turn to a flood and that might sweep the Southern Resident Orca into our range.  As we head out of Friday Harbor, with news that the whales are inching our way,  Captain Pete decides on the long run toward Victoria.  No stops to scan for Minke whales this afternoon, but with flat water and sunshine we head across Haro Strait.  Finally, the black fins and blows appear as small dots on the horizon.  We watch Grace and Wavewalker and Gaia slip silently through the Strait of Juan de Fuca waters.  Then to the shoreside we spot many, many J,K and L whales…as they head toward San Juan Island.  Mystery solved…and…the whales we found off to the port side of the boat?  Mystery and Alexis, two L pod whales!

~Nan

A true “fogust” day today. We had an incredible encounter with L pod in the morning. There’s something about watching whales in the fog that just invokes a feeling of mystery. Most of L pod was together. Imagine 40 whales packed into a tight group taking a nap and then emerging from the fog like ghosts. WOW! On our second trip, the fog had lifted, but we had all lost track of L pod. Thankfully J and K pods were flying down south at incredible speed. It was amazing to watch such a large group of orcas stay at top speed for such a long period of time. I suppose someone rang the dinner bell off the south end of the island…

~Katie

This afternoon was just gorgeous! It was nice and calm on the west side of San Juan Island and there were whales spread out everywhere. We saw primarily L pod whales - some were fishing and some were taking a rest. The first group we came upon included L41 “Mega”, L77 “Matia”, L82 “Kasatka”, L94 “Calypso”, and little L113. All the orcas were in a line and appeared to be taking a nap in the warm afternoon sun. Near the end of the trip we found L105 “Fluke”, L106 “Pooka”, and little L112 together. Fluke and Pooka are both five-year-old males. Little L112 is about a year old and is Pooka’s kid sister. The two boys seemed to be trying to teach L112 how to catch fish. There was a lot of rolling around at the surface and spyhopping. At one point both boys were pushing the little one around and then all three of them spyhopped at once! I love hanging out with the kids. The antics never stop!

~Katie

Today was one of those days where the orcas were just out of reach for us, but on the other hand we saw lots of other great birds and marine mammals so it was still a fantastic trip.

Flat water, gray and mist as far as I could see….and, whales.  Surrounded by whales!  Because the water was flat today, my eyes picked up black fin tips far far away…as I realize, we are surrounded by whales.  Black fins and long bodies surface and slip this way and that, going about whale business.  It easy to see the big breaches in the distance!  Persistant rain didn’t dampen spirits.  All afternoon I looked from one smiling face to another.

Ruffles came gliding by in that slow manner he has….fin up, up, UP….fin disappearing down, down, down.  Then some rolling, chin poking up, side flipping over type moves.   Just as it seemed finally time to move away and back toward the harbor, Riptide and group were making a serious path for mid Haro Strait.  The four fins surfacing together was quite a sight.  Time for departure and there were massive breaches, one after another, way behind us.  Just more opportunity to keep watching the whales!

At Whale Rocks a Steller sealion cruises inbetween the kelp patches.  Harbor seals line the edges of the haulout area, and tall black Cormorant birds perch on top like sentinels keeping watch.

Time to get back to Friday Harbor, hot chocolate in the hands of many, smiles all around.

~ Nan

Friday!  What a day!  We spent this afternoon with the L-47 group….and, definitely a very very small one swimming along beside the three adult females.  But the big, no, BIG, question is….who is the mother???  This was such a special afternoon for me…watching this group of L pod females travel along with a new small wee one inbetween them, no, ahead of them, and no….off to the side…no…in back..no….and so went the wonderful time on the water watching what had to be a one or two day old calf in the Southern Resident Orca whale population!!

The adult females put on a few displays of surface active behavior…in the form of cartwheels, tail slapping, and the photo above which shows a big back stroke with pec fins in the air and tail too!  Then there would be more traveling together as a family, and the new calf did a few “chin ups” of his / her own…and some porpoise dives…all seemingly healthy, active, energetic behavior!  WOW!

Finally it was time to turn for home, and what should appear by a Minke whale surfacing to the west.  We motored over there to take a closer look and got a few more sightings of diving behavior.  Then when we turned for home once again…yet another Minke whale surfaced and disappeared, going in the opposite direction.  There were two Minkes!

We also found a Steller Sea lion on Whale Rocks on the way back, many Harbor seals and Cormorants as well.  The sun came out, the water was flat…and it was a fine motor trip back into Friday Harbor!

A very special day on the water for me!

~Nan

This morning we picked up our charter group at Roche Harbor.  There were no reports yet of Orca locations, so we headed out to the west and south in Haro Strait.  Although we knew some whales had gone north early this morning, we just felt there had to be a few that decided against the trip up to the Fraser River, and so we decided to search for them in favorite foraging areas.  Our trip took us though some pretty big waves and exciting weather.  Then as the seas calmed down, we found ourselves searching with four other boats.  No one had seen a fin…..yet.  We were running out of places to look when fins appreared off shore!  What a great find….three adult males from L pod were cruising out on the bank with some very fast foraging moves.  It turned into a great morning, with easy viewing in calm water and very active whales.  On the way in we found a Steller sea lion on Whale Rocks and many Harbor seals!

In the afternoon we were able to return to the same area for more great looks at L Pod whales.  The “boys” were cruising north now along the shore….and then south….and then…north…a perfect example of what we call “The Westside Shuffle.”  Several salmon launced themselves out of the water…a strategy for survival?  Then a whole school of salmon, swimming so close to the surface that their backs were visible, passed by the boat.  Something underneath them?  Very clearly, lots of fish in the area.  That’s good news for the Southern Resident Orca whales!

It was great fun to get a good look at Tucker the whale research dog and his Handler.  Tucker specializes in detecting whale poop and he’s very good at it!   Here’s a photo of him wearing his new “Doggles” which help protect his eyes from UV rays on the water.

By the time we returned to the harbor, the sun was out and summer had returned!

~Nan

Cappuccino and Raggedy are a couple of special whales to me because they are the first whales I ever saw up close when I first came to the San Juan Islands ten years ago. Back then their mom K18 Kiska was still alive, and the three of them made quite an impression on me - enough of one that I’ve come back here every summer since then!

I was just listening to the hydrophones at orcasound.net and heard quite a lot of vocalizing. It sounded to me like the two groups of whales from this morning had probably met up and were enjoying socializing with one another! Hopefully all the great sightings will continue, as August has started off just as great in terms of whale encounters as was the entire month of July.

Wow, this summer has flown by.  And what a summer it has been so far.  While the weather may have had notions that it was spring, no fall, no spring again, we have had some amazing days with the wildlife of the Salish Sea. Well, August has picked up right where July left off.  Some morning fog, and then sunny afternoons.  And today the whales were also doing pretty much what they were doing at the end of  July–the west side shuffle!  Whales had been doing the shuffle since early AM, and as we were heading to Cattle Point, we heard the whales were heading towards Lime Kiln again.  But we were not very concerned as with the big flood tide coming in, we knew the whales were likely to head back towards False Bay.  And that’s exactly where we found them!  First we saw J27 Blackberry, who was doing his J1 Ruffles imitation by hanging quite aways offshore from the rest of the whales.

Eventually we were able to find a nice little group of whales off to themselves, so we slowly made our way over.  We spotted J39 Mako along with J34 Doublestuff.  More whales were closer to shore, but we were staying outside of the 1/4 mile west side buffer zone, so I couldn’t get any IDs.  J39 and J34 were being very energetic, with lots of chasing and playing around, spyhops, and then J34 did a beautiful breach.  You could see that this young male is starting to get the characteristic growing dorsal fin along with the very paddle-like pectoral fins.

The whales continued their foraging as we left them still milling around False Bay.  We saw lots of bait fish along with several salmon jumping, so perhaps this is why these whales have hung out here for the last 3 days?

The front…

And the back!

Our two trips today took us out to the west side of San Juan Island.  This has been a week of morning fog and ferry delays….so it seems almost more special when we have such great whale watching expereinces after everyone has had some extra challenges in having everything fall into place.  This morning we went around the north end of the island and down Haro Strait.  There we found two K pod family whales cruising south.  Once we stopped to watch them we realized we had caught up with more whales!  They seemed to surround the boat in every direction….although the fog plays tricks with what direction is what direction!  We had a great experence with lots of foraging going on all around us.  Although we had some big waves and surprise spray as we came into Haro Strait, we found absolutely calm water where we stopped to watch the whales.

This afternoon’s trip lead us to the south end of the island as the whales had continued south.  However, when we found them they were once again headed…yes…north!  We had a group of seven or eight whales, with four adult males cruising in and around females.  There was one youngster that always had to put his /her two cents of tail slapping into the mix.  Once two of the males breached at the same time!  Yikes!  This group was very social this afternoon, with breaching, spy hopping, swimming together, rolling over each other….and who knows what else!

As we made our way back the fog had mostly lifted and we stopped at Whale Rocks to see a Steller sealion!  What a surprise! This bold fellow was proudly perched on the end of the rocks, head up to the sky….very photogenic. This is not a usual July sighting!   We also found Harbor seals at Shark Reef and a Great Blue Heron.

Once back in Friday Harbor, the sun was out and it was hard to believe we had piled on blankets and hats and gloves for the trip home!

~Nan

Cruising through Cattle Pass we entered a blanket of fog….whale watching, in the fog?  Yep!  We found some of K pod, foraging off the Salmon Bank bouy this morning.  The whales, of course, seemed to have no problem with the fog…and we felt very lucky and excited to find them and have such a great viewing opportunity!  There is something about feeling like you are the only boat out there, just quietly watching and more importantly, listening…for the whales.

The afternoon trip started back in sunny Friday Harbor and although we saw that same fog hanging in Cattle Pass….surprise!  When we cruised by Cattle Point lighthouse…the fog was only a memory from the morning.  We had excellent visibility and found a part of J pod crusing up the west side of San Juan Island.  This time, Blackberry, J-27 was escorting his two younger siblings and headed north.  We were able to watch by just floating silently in the calm water.  As I looked over the bow I saw something I rarely actually see and called out to Captain Pete…”Hey!  Salmon!”  Later in the log I recorded, “Salmon!  Seven salmon swimming silently”….right next to the bow of Western Prince II!  Where there are Chinook salmon…there are whales, and sure enough the foraging began in earnest!  What excitement!

On both trips today we found Harbor seals tagging along with their moms, and attempting the “ride on her back” trick.  We also found an Eagle up high in the next along the Cattle Point side of the island.

~Nan

Who says that a good playmate can’t be of a different specie? Anyone who has a dog in their life knows exactly what I’m talking about when I say this, but what about other animals? Several years ago I was lucky enough to spend six months living on Maui researching humpback whales. One of the most enthralling and interesting things I observed was watching bottlenose dolphins play with the humpbacks. The dolphins would excitedly swim right in front of the humpbacks and then suddenly, the whales would lift the dolphins out of the water on their giant heads and the dolphins would then go sliding down the whale’s back. It was hysterical to watch and it just seemed like the dolphins and the whales were having such a good time together. After a “sliding” incident, the dolphin would frantically swim back to the front of the whale’s head and would become very surface active almost as if to say, “Do it again! Do it again!”
Last night we witnessed an interesting inter species hang-out session. We found the K12’s - K12 “Sequim”, K22 “Sekiu”, K37 “Rainshadow”, K33 “Tika”, and little bitty K43 hanging out with a minke whale! Or maybe the minke whale was hanging out with them. It was hard to say, but it was certainly a lot of fun to watch. There was lots of surface activity - breaching, spyhopping, tail-lobbing, and even a seasnake! The orcas continued to mill around in one area and the minke was among them. Usually when we see minke whales, it’s a very nice treat, but they don’t come to the surface very often and are therefore harder to track than the orcas. This was not the case last night! The minke was surfacing very often and was right in the thick of the playing orcas a lot of the time. How I wish I could have seen what was going on under the surface! At one point, in true minke fashion, the whale surfaced right near the boat! Minke whales are known to be quite curious. Perhaps he was curious about the orcas and also about the very excited onlookers on the boat. Whatever the case, it was a beautiful evening and so special to see an incredible inter species interaction. Here are some images from our voyages yesterday:

K40 “Raggedy” shows off her nicks:

Helloooo minke whale!:

~Katie