Whale Watching Report

Captain Shane took the reins today as we attempted to finish a perfect whale sighting record so far in 2009. We started out getting some great views of California sea lions hauled out on a few channel markers, and lots of harbor seals in the water. Shane took us between Whidbey and Camano Islands where we found a large pod of Dall's porpoises mixed with Dall's/harbor porpoise hybrids. Many of the hybrids looked at first glance to be full blooded harbor porpoise, and its possible we could have had a completely mixed pod. Not long after the great porpoise viewing, Shane spotted two gray whales. It turned out to be our old friend, Patch, #49 traveling with #21. They started out in the deep water, but eventually worked their way into the shallows to feed, giving our passengers some great viewing. We were all excited to finally be able to say we've found gray whales on 100% of our trips from Everett this Spring. That makes two years in a row that we have had perfect records during our spring gray whale season in Everett!! Other wildlife we saw today included western grebes, bald eagles, osprey, pigeon guillemots, great blue herons, and double-crested cormorants. What an awesome finale to our time in Everett this spring. Tonight we drive up to Anacortes in order to start our orca/minke whale trips on Saturday. I can't wait! Naturalist Bart Rulon