5 Gray Whales Sighted
A gray whale pectoral fin and a common loon during our morning trip.
Two gray whales surface together during our afternoon trip!
Captain Mike called in from the Island Explorer 3 to report that our guests are on-scene with 5 Gray Whales. Stay tuned to the Whale Report for details from Naturalist Bart Rulon. Today was a great day to have our first double trips, with one at 11am and one at 3pm. Our first trip started out with very calm seas and filtered sunshine. We spotted a California sea lion hauled out on a channel marker about 15 minutes into the trip. Shortly after that we spotted our first gray whale of the day. It was #49, Patch, and we watched him for about 25 minutes. He gave us many great looks at his signature "patch" on his back. He swam over toward a marker that had four bald eagles perched on it, two adults and two immatures. Next we cruised northward looking for more whales, and we found our second on the north side of Hat Island. This was #22 and he was swimming very close to shore. He was in such shallow water at times that we could see his pectoral flippers and his tail flukes in the air as he swam sideways feeding on the bottom. As he moved into deeper water he raised his tail flukes high in the air on a couple of occasions giving everybody great looks at this tail. On our morning trip we also spotted lots of harbor seals, harbor porpoises, common loons, double crested cormorants, pigeon guillemots, red-breasted mergansers, and surf scoters. On our second trip of the day we started out with two California sea lions on the channel marker that had one on it earlier. Again, soon after that we started spotting whales. We spotted three gray whales near the marker which earlier in the day had 4 eagles on it. As we got closer we could see that they were feeding in very shallow water. They were raising their pectoral flippers and tail flukes as they fed. I was able to identify one of them as #22. This time the marker had two bald eagle perched on it, one adult and one immature bird. The gray whales swam right next to the marker. We watched these three gray whales for about an hour as they gave us plenty of action. While watching them we also spotted two others off in the distance and decided to cruise over to give them a look. #383 swam our way. He was making some deeper dives, and raising his tail flukes high in the air so we followed him for a while. Everybody was thrilled with how many photo opportunities he presented by showing off his tail flukes! Soon it was time to head back to the dock, but we got stuck in more whale traffic, so Captain Mike slowed down to give our original gray whales another look. Other wildlife spotted on our afternoon trip included surf scoters, harbor seals, double crested cormorants, and common loons. We sure had two action packed trips for our passengers today! Naturalist Bart Rulon
posted by Island Adventures Whale Report @ 4:56 PM
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