Written by Traci
on Jun 19, 2017

A Truly Remarkable Encounter With 5 Humpback Whales Lunge Feeding!

A Truly Remarkable Encounter With 5 Humpback Whales Lunge Feeding!

Our tour began with several sightings of Humpback whales south of San Juan Island.

Off we went south in San Juan Channel first making a stop at Whale Rocks. There were still some Steller Sea lions hanging around and they seemed particularly agitated by one another. Most of the other sea lions have left to go to their breeding grounds. We got to watch as smaller animals challenged a couple very large males for a better spot on the rocks. Several times sea lions were forced to cannonball into the water after giving up against a larger animal. We then got to watch one of the big males slowly and carefully do a dive off the rocks and into the water. We continued south to where there were multiple Humpback whales spotted. On the way, we saw a Minke whale too! We headed for an area called Hein bank. We approached two Humpback whales to view. The scenery was so lovely too. All the mountains were out and everything had this beautiful blue tint to it. What happened next, I was not prepared for!

Seemingly a normal Humpback encounter turned into an epic feeding encounter. Mouths agape and skimming the surface side by side, these two younger Humpbacks just kept on feeding. A breath or two, and then mouths back up at the surface. Then we noticed 2 other larger Humpback whales in the distance. They eventually came together with the two youngers ones and everyone continued lunge feeding at the surface! All four! While this was happening, we could see the blows of 2 other Humpbacks in the distance. One of which breached! Eventually, the bigger Humpbacks moved on, and one of the other single Humpbacks joined in with the younger two. And more lunge feeding happened!! It was incredible how long this went on! It’s not every day we get to see more Humpback mouths versus seeing flukes! As some of the whales fed at the surface, you could clearly see their eyeballs above the surface and they were looking at us!

A truly remarkable encounter and something I have never seen to this extent in my decade of watching whales here.

If you’re interested in booking a tour with us, be sure to check out our whale watching tours on the Western Prince II or the Western Explorer II and if you’re coming from Seattle, read more about our Whale Watching Seattle trips!

 

Written by Traci
on Jun 19, 2017

A Truly Remarkable Encounter With 5 Humpback Whales Lunge Feeding!

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