Whale Watching Report

9:30am
This morning we headed north on word that J-pod had been spotted just south of the Frazier River. Along the way we spotted bald eagles, lots of harbor seals, and harbor porpoise. I spotted the first marbled murrelet sightings of the year for me, as we saw 4 of them east of Guemes Island. We found J-pod just south of Point Roberts today. When we first arrived we watched Blackberry, J27, swim by. Later we watched Princess Angeline, J17, Polaris, J28, and Tahlequah, J35 swimming together. We spent most of our time parallel viewing Samish, J14, Riptide, J30, Hy'Shqa, J37, and Suttles, J40. We did see one breach off in the distance today. On our way back to the dock we drove between Barnes and Clark Islands, and watched four bald eagles and several harbor seals on the Clark Island side. Naturalist Bart Rulon

3:30pm
J-pod had moved southwest for our afternoon trip so we decided to take a route through the inner San Juan Islands to meet up with them. We spotted several bald eagles and harbor seals as we made our way through the San Juan Islands. We eventually found J-pod swimming southwest in Boundary Pass toward Turn Point. The first orcas we found were grouped up in a resting mode and we spent most of our time parallel viewing them. Included in this group were Oreo, J22, Double Stuff, J34, Cookie, J38, Princess Angeline, J17, Polaris, J28, Tahlequah, J35, Blossom J11, Blackberry, J27, Tsuchi, J31, and Mako, J39. They all surfaced together on many occasions making for some great photo opportunities. Later we also caught up with Spieden, J8, Shachi, J19, and Eclipse, J41 as they were swimming together near this first group. On our way back home we spotted more bald eagles and two osprey perched near their nest on Crane Island. It rained on us some today, but miraculously it stopped for us while we watched the orcas. We must have had some help from above. Naturalist Bart Rulon