Whale Watching Report

There he blows!

Courting Western Grebes

We found a whale for our passengers in record time today. We had just passed the southern tip of Jetty Island, and I picked up the microphone to tell the passengers that we were now in waters that could have gray whales. Before I could open up my mouth a gray whale surfaced! He came up a few more times then he moved into the shallows where we couldn't get a very close-up look at him. So we decided to look for more whales. Along the way we spotted thousands of western grebes, lots of surf scoters, white-winged scoters, bald eagles and cormorants. At the north end of Hat Island the harbor seals seemed to be everywhere, and we got many close up views of them cruising by us lazily. We circled around Hat Island, but we were unable to spot any other whales, so we headed back to find the first whale. He wasn't very far from where we left him. He was swimming in shallow water and wasn't diving very deeply. He would just lift his head up for a breath and then slowly sink back under time after time. Only on a few occasions did he raise his back out of the water. From the little bit of his back that I did see, it appeared to be #21. He was very consistent in his actions and our passengers could often see him swimming just underneath the surface. Viewing from our upper deck is perfect for looking into the water and seeing whales before they come up. When we finally decided that it was time to head back to the dock, our gray whale started to get very active, giving our passengers a great finale. He raised his head high out of the water, slipped back into the water, sent a bunch of bubbles up, and then rolled over with a big splash giving everybody a great view of his body. Along with ideal weather conditions we had a fantastic day on the water. Naturalist Bart Rulon