Whale Watching Report

We started out today's trip cruising through the inner San Juan Islands. Along the way we spotted several harbor porpoises, and a bald eagle perched in a tree on Decatur Island, and a bunch of harbor seals hauled out on some rocks. Next we passed through Cattle Pass and soon afterward found our first minke whale. As we approached the whale another one surfaced nearby. Before long we counted five minke whales that were either in our vicinity or off in the distance. We focused on a couple whales at a time as they changed directions often. They gave our passengers some close viewing on a few different occasions. While we were watching these minke whales there were many harbor seals that would lazily float along on the surface near our boat. Other wildlife we spotted today included California sea lions, pacific loons, pelagic cormorants, double-crested cormorants, pigeon Guillemots, and rhinoceros auklets. We finished off our trip with some great harbor porpoises playing in the wake behind our boat in Rosario Strait and another California sea lion hauled out on a channel marker in Guemes Channel. Naturalist Bart Rulon