Whale Watching Report

9:30 am
We started our morning off by cruising through the inner San Juan Islands. The weather started off cloudy with a little rain, but as we moved our way through the islands things improved until we eventually had sunshine and blue skies. We found an orca superpod just west of Speiden Island. As soon as we arrived on scene with the orcas we saw action with several orcas breaching, a few doing tail slaps and one spyhopped at close range. The orcas were grouped up pretty closely together. This first group we watched included J-pod and L-pod orcas. Other orcas were spread out behind us and out to the west. All the orcas were swimming toward Stuart Island, and eventually many of them swam right against Stuart's rocky shoreline. They continued to be very active along the shore breaching often, cartwheeling, tailslapping, and spyhopping. 4 year old, Comet, K38 was swimming alone close to us for several minutes and then later mom, Spock, K20, came over to join the youngster. Spock swam right behind our boat giving us all a great look. Other orcas we saw included J1, Ruffles, L57, Faith, K21, Cappuccino, K26, Lobo, and many others. The scenery was beautiful as the orcas swam right next to shore up to the Tern Point lighthouse. We said goodbye to the orcas as they reached the point. On the way back to the dock we cruised close to Speiden Island and saw great views of the mouflon sheep, sika deer, and fallow deer. A large group of big rams were resting out in the open for everyone to see. We also got a good look at several harbor seals hauled out on the rocks in this area.

3:30pm
Our second trip started out with a bald eagle flying along the shoreline on Fidalgo Island. The superpod we saw on our first trip swam north this afternoon heading up to the Frazier River so we decided to look for some transient orcas that were closer to home. We drove through the inner San Juan Islands again and came out at the top of San Juan Island. We found the group of about 8 transient orcas swimming north in Haro Strait just west of Andrews Bay. There were several females, one calf, and a big male that looked like a teenager. The orcas surfaced many times and occasionally changed directions while we parallel viewed them. Our passengers got many good looks at all the orcas in this transient pod. On our way back to the dock we spotted a bald eagle circling over Battleship Island, and eventually he landed on one of the trees there. Conditions were calm as we cruised back through the San Juan Islands to the dock to end a great day of whale watching. Naturalist Bart Rulon