San Juan Whale Watching

We spent a wonderful afternoon with J-Pod today off of the south end of San Juan Island.

I new it was going to be an interesting day when we found a big Stellar Sea Lion fishing at the bottom of San Juan Channel.  Stellars normally don’t start showing up until September.

The whales were very spread out and doing a lot of foraging.  So, I found a nice little group all to ourselves and set up off to the side to observe.  It was a very playful little family group made up mostly of the J11’s.  As we continued offshore with them I started getting some reports of 2-3 different Minke Whales mixed in with the Orca Whales.  We caught a few looks here and there of the Minkes as we went by.  Then we headed over to check out J1 (Ruffles).  He is the oldest (57 years) and biggest (6ft dorsal) male in the population and always a magnificent animal to observe.  The really interesting thing though was that a small Minke Whale was traveling along side of J1 within about 200 yards.  We observed at least 6-8 surfacing with both animals almost in sync.  One thing that makes this so interesting is that Transient Orcas (mammal feeding) are known to prey on Minke Whales, yet these guys looked like best buddies.

One of the things that I love about being out on the water is that you never know what you will find.

Two very interesting trips today! I let JB shoot all the photos today. So here is my report and his photos this time.

This morning we arrived with J-Pod and some of L-Pod in unusually thick fog at the bottom of Rosario Strait. That is a photo of the Adventuress appearing out of the fog like a ghost ship of a pirate tale. Soon the fog lifted and we got a full view of a group of about 15 whales passing by. Beautiful!

Then it got really interesting. I received a report from a another boat about a small Pacific White Sided Dolphin nearby. In fact it seemed to be hanging out with the Orca Whales. Maybe it thought it had found some long lost relatives. Good thing these Orcas weren’t Transients (mammal feeding). So we went looking for it and soon enough it found us instead. We watched with excitement as it darted towards our bow, just beneath the surface, and then road in our bow wake, sliding effortlessly from side to side. These guys are extremely rare and this one was definitely a juvenile, which reminded me of the juvenile Pacific White Sided that we saw last year on August 7th. Is it possible that it was the same one??? Very interesting indeed.

This afternoon, we found the same Orca Whales up north of San Juan Island. They had covered about 20 miles since the morning trip! The whales were spread out in small groups and moving north when we arrived. We spent the trip with several different family groups. In these situations I love to hang out with one group for a while and then drop back to view the next group. It worked out perfectly and allowed us to see almost all of the whales.

On the way home this afternoon we stopped at Spieden Island, where we found some beautiful Mouflan Big Horn Rams on the point and about 30 Harbor Porpoises feeding in the strong currents nearby. Awesome ending to and incredible day.

OK, it is time to catch up a bit. I have to admit that our busy schedule has gotten the better of me and I have fallen behind on the blog. So, here are my photos from the last week. I will let them do most of the talking. We have had some truly memorable trips, including one with no whales, but amazing Dall’s Porpoises which swam around the boat for almost 15 minutes!! Other highlights include: Transient Orca Whales, Surfing Harbor Porpoises, and lots of adorable Harbor Seal pups.

Also, here is a great report from this morning by one of my naturalists, Monika:

This morning was another brilliant encounter with members of J-Pod and L-Pod. We left the dock with no whale report, but came back with one of our most memorable viewings of the season.

We pride ourselves on the Western Prince for not only adhering to but setting an example for the WWOANW guidelines for wildlife viewing, which includes maintaining a 100 yard distance between us and the whales whenever possible. Still, as the whales like to remind us on days like today, it really is up to the them how close of an encounter we have.

As we were setting up to parallel a family group of orcas, two males veered off a little more in our direction. It looked like they would pass alongside and then behind us, so we cut our engines and stayed put. All the sudden on their next surfacing, they were heading directly at us, already within 100 yards, so as indicated by the guidelines we kept our engines cut. >From up on the bow, we could see them approaching underwater. I could see the saddle patch of the first heading right for the middle of our starboard side, then fade as the whale dove a little deeper so his fin could clear our boat as he swam underneath us. I could see the eyepatch and white side markings of the second as he swam under our bow, and one customer exclaimed, “He’s blowing bubbles!”

Everyone wanted to know which whales had decided to come over and check us out, but they stayed underwater for 50-75 yards as they quickly swam on. Then, just as we were about to lose site of them underwater, one came up and broke the surface, his tall, wavy dorsal fin immediately identifying him as Ruffles (J1). I was amazed at how hard he was to recognize head on as he swam towards us, but from behind there was no mistaking him!

Ruffles and the other unidentified male joined up with another large group of J-Pod, and we followed them for another 15-20 minutes as they began to pick up speed and head towards San Juan Island. My heart was pounding a little faster the whole time as I fully comprehended that two whales had passed right under our boat! The whole bunch was active, porpoising and tail-slapping, and we saw two full body breaches right before we peeled off and headed back to Friday Harbor.

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist

This morning on the Western Prince we departed Friday Harbor with a report of an unidentified group of orcas heading north near Eagle Point. It was foggy as we headed out through Cattle Pass and started heading north.

With visibility of about 300 yards, it was a surprise when a tall dorsal fin came piercing through the water off our port side - heading back south towards us! We cut our engines as whales started to appear on all sides of us. The water was so glassy calm it blended in with the foggy gray skies, and Captain Pete dropped the hydrophone in the water. S1 and S7 vocalizations - it must be J-Pod! How cool: it was one of the few times where I get to identify the pod by the unique sounds of their repertoire before getting a good look at any saddle patches to confirm which whales I was seeing.

My identification was soon confirmed, however, when Polaris (J28) pulled offshore and passed right by us. Swimming just on the other side of her was Talequah (J35), her younger sister.

For the next 45 minutes we got nice looks at two of J-Pod’s young males, Mike (J26) and Blackberry (J27). Their family members were around as well as they mingled and foraged, giving us several opportunities to drop the hydrophone on this quiet morning and listen to their clear vocalizations with hardly any background noise.

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist

We left the dock this afternoon, knowing that J Pod, which had been up around the Fraser River in B.C., had turned to the south and was headed into our range! Great!

We decided, with the huge flood tide coming in, that we would head directly up toward the whales and hope they would continue to swim into the flood. By the time we reached Boundary Pass, they were headed slowly to the south and west, along Boundary. We had a great time watching J Pod, and part of L Pod as they worked their way against the flood tide. There were several special spy hops, a lot of foraging and traveling behavior, in family groups. J-1, Ruffles, was cruising the shoreling. Granny, J-2, gave a big spy hop along our side. We also were able to see J-27, Blackberry as he came swiftly swimming along. Although there was occassional rain, and cloudy skies, the water was calm, except for tide rips here and there, and the afternoon was absolutely magical. Time passed so fast, how could we have been with the whales for an hour! It’s hard to believe time is passing when you are watching such incredible animals. On our way home we made a stop by Flattop Island, wildlife reserve area, and were able to see Harbor seal moms and pups in the water all around us, two adult Bald eagles in the tree line, and another around the corner, as well as the beautiful little Pigeon Guillemonts as their red webbed feet pushed them around the water’s surface! Everyone seemed to enjoy the richness of the San Juan ecosystem that surrounded us all the way back to Friday Harbor!

Our evening trip tonight was with the Audubon Campers. The kids were in high spirts as they boarded the Western Prince II for a trip out to find the whales we had been with just hours before. The same intense flood tide kept the whales moving slowly to the west and south. On our way up to see them, we found five, (FIVE!!) juvenile or subadult Bald eagles on Big Cactus Island! And, there were three adult Bald eagles above them in the treeline. Harbor seal pups swam all around the boat as we floated in the channel, listening to the eagles call to one another. Yet, there were still whales to see, so on we traveled. We came across the whales, J-19 and family first, right where Spieden Channel joins Haro Strait. The whales were intent on traveling south, and yet there was foraging going on as well. Mike, J-26 did some excellent foraging well within our sight, and we watched his massive fin as he turned this way and then back the other way, and then, wow, a deep dive! Several other J pod whales came by and joined up with Mike. The kids were enthralled with the whale activity. A special evening, on the water with whales. How could it get any better?

We had a wonderful encounter with J-Pod up at the north end of San Juan Island today.  Here are some of my shots and a great report from one of our naturalists, Monika.  Be sure to check out her blog at http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/ .

Today on the Western Prince we got to spend some time with two separate J-Pod family groups. We met up with Js in the northern part of Haro Strait, and they were very spread out with a mile or more between different families. The first group we came across was the J14s. Samish (J14) is the matriach, and her youngest calf Suttles (J40) still looked very small next to her despite turning four years old this year. Hy’shqa (J37) and Riptide (J30) were also there, and they were quite playful on the surface between long dives. At one point Hy’shqa and Suttles surfaced together, and one of them spyhopped while the other lifted its tail high into the air. Later on Samish pushed Suttles at the surface while she waved her little flukes in the air! Despite being the matriarch of the family Samish seemed to be encouraging the play as she lifted her tail, draped in kelp, three times in a row.

Next we found the J22s, a group we affectionately call “The Cookies” since they are named Oreo (J22), Doublestuf (J34), and Cookie (J38). Also hanging out with them was Rhapsody (J32), who often spends time with her aunt Oreo since she has no other immediate family. Cookie was traveling right in mom’s slipstream while Doublestuf was a little further offshore lunging at the surface, probably in pursuit of a salmon.

An interesting note about Oreo is that she has little black spots in her eyepatch, as seen in the photo below. Usually the whales’ eyepatches are purely white, but I’ve learned for the last few years that every individual whale looks different. Some whales have clean oval eyepatches while others are shaped like a peanut and have gradual fading edges. It’s just another example of how every one of our Southern Resident killer whales is a unique individual!

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

We had two of the most memorable trips today. The weather was perfect, even though the forecast said otherwise, and on both trips we found ourselves with an almost private whale encounter.

This morning we caught up with J-Pod, K-Pod, and part of L-Pod in Rosario Strait. Just after we arrived, J-Pod decided to turn around and head north instead of south with the rest of the whales. Lucky for us, almost all of the other boats stayed with the southern group, while only a couple of us went north with J’s. So we had a beauitiful encounter with J1 (Ruffles), his mother J2 (Granny) and the rest of the family. J2 was doing a lot of “logging” (floating partially out of the water for an extended period of time) at the surface and at one point even did what is best described as a “raspberry” sound. It was such a wonderful thing to just drift with the engines off and listen to the blows and vocalizations on the hydrophone. We headed back to Friday Harbor thinking there was no way we could match such a wonderful trip this afternoon.

When we left the dock this afternoon K-Pod was reported just off of Cattle Pass (very close to Friday Harbor), while J-Pod was way up north. So we headed south down San Juan Channel and out towards Salmon Bank to find K-Pod (or at least part of K-Pod as I later found out) heading west up the island. As we were approaching the area where the whales (and lots of boats) were I heard another captain say on the radio that he had run across a group of whales several miles to the east of us. Well, that was all I needed. So we ran east in search of this group. I kept looking back expecting to see lots of boats following us, but none were coming. We ended up finding the rest of K-Pod and some L-Pod whales off the south end of Lopez Island. Again, we had a whole group of whales basically to ourselves (1 other boat eventually came over) and were able to just sit still, drop the hydrophone, and enjoy. We had a wonderful pass from K14 (Lea) and her new baby as well has some awesome fishing behavior from L87 (Onyx).

On the way home we found a juvenile Elephant Seal (very rare) lazily sunning itself on a beach along with several Harbor Seals just around the corner on some rocks. The Kingfisher shot was taken after we tied up in Friday Harbor. It was fishing in the slip across from us.

We started our trip without an “orca report” and 25 Audubon campers aboard.  The weather conditions helped us decide to go north as we kept listening to see if anyone had seen the whales today.  We found an adult Bald eagle in the nest on a small island to the north, who looked very busy poking it’s head down into the nest.  Hum?!  Then, a sighting of orcas came in!  Our trip took us all the way to the Discovery Islands, near the southern tip of Vancouver Island!  There we found part of L pod that had not been sighted in the area yet this summer!  SO, that was big news.  The water was a bit “bouncy” and we had come a long way, so we couldn’t stay too long, but we got really great viewing of the L2’s, including the large male!    This afternoon’s trip took us north to the top of San Juan Island on the west side.  The whales we had watched yesterday, we now heading north along San Juan Island!  So.  That mystery solved!  We were able to watch J-1, Ruffles for a long time as he came along in Haro Strait, and crossed toward the same lighthouse they had rounded yesterday afternoon.  This group of whales seemed on a traveling mission, but took time out for some great foraging behavior.  Let’s hope it was rewarded with lots of fish!  On our way back to Friday Harbor we wound our way through the Cactus Islands again.  However, today….what a surprise!  We heard Bald eagles calling back and forth with excitement.  Then we saw two immature Bald eagles, in their beautiful brown spotted feathers, and one had the white tail already! The did several fly bys and then the twirling in the air above and below each other behavior.   They landed on the rocky shore and hopped behind some rocks.   Then two adult Bald eagles  came soaring from the trees and landed in the same spot.  There was definitely something to eat behind the rocks on shore.  But what was all the noise about?  Then we saw it!  This year’s “chick” was hopping up and down at the base of the tree above the cliff.  It was huge!  For all the world it seemed like the chick had somehow landed on the ground, and now couldn’t decide if it could actually fly down to the food with the rest of the birds.  It seemed to consider hopping along a shore path, but then leaned over the cliff….no, back, no, over, no….    We were all thinking, “You can do it!”  Suddenly the youngster did four “fly-hops” and a glide…right down to what was left of the opportunistic snack.  We literally cheered!  What a sight.  A first flight?  Well, maybe a second flight, as somehow it had to get from the nest to the forest floor!   Another day where, as we often say, “We can tell you exactly what we’re going to see, when we get back to the dock!”  

The sun broke out for the afternoon trip, and the whales headed into our range from the north!  Hooray!  We made a stop at White Rocks on our way.  There were Harbor seal pups and moms.  What a sight!  The water was flat as we continued north to Boundary Pass…..most of the way across Boundary Pass.  J pod was making it’s way along the international boundary with some breaches in the distance.  We had a great time viewing J-1, Ruffles, and his mother, J-2, Granny.  The whales seemed to be really international travelers this afternoon, as they moved back and forth right on the boundary line.  It was a wonderful time in the sunshine, flat water and all of J pod moving along.  As the whales rounded Turn Point lighthouse, we turned to go back through the islands after an hour of wonderful whale watching.  We checked out some Bald eagle nests and meandered back through the Cactus Islands….a most excellent day!  I can’t help but wonder if the whales will continue on out the Strait….or?  That mystery will be solved in the morning.

Well, finally last night J-Pod reunited after 7 days of being split.  Very unusual indeed.  It is good to see them all together again.  Here are my photos (nice spy hop, huh!).  More info later….

Another morning trip with the J14’s and J16’s and then an afternoon trip with the “rest” of J-Pod and a few L-Pod whales. It was a great day on the water, you might even call it a super day because, after all, as JB and Alison like to say, it is “Super Tuesday”.

Here are my photos from today. I will get more info up later…..

Today we finally got to see the “rest” of J-Pod as they headed up the west side of San Juan Island. Here are a few of my photos and a great report and awesome spyhop photo from JB:

Well, as predicted, the J14’s, J16’s, and J8 went North last night to look for the rest of their pod. Meanwhile, their pod-mates came a-callin’ down here, so it appears that they keep missing each other. We had a wonderful encounter with J1, J2, J27, L57, the J22’s, J28. We were spending some quality time with J1 Ruffles and J2 Granny who were leading the group and were actively fishing in the strong currents near Kellett Bluff. Then they slowed down to allow J19 and J41 to catch up with them. It was so cool to watch this little group travel along the shoreline, frequently coming to the surface amidst the thick kelp beds that line that part of the island. Then Ruffles did something I’ve never seen him do. He’d come to the surface, dive down, and the next surfacing would be a big spyhop. Then 2-3 more surfacings and another spyhop! He did 4 of these, and one time he had a bit of kelp on his massive pectorals! Then J41 started holding his tail flukes high out of the water, as if to show “uncle ruffles” his bit of acrobatics. It was so relaxing yet so fun to watch these whales carrying on in their daily lives. A fabulous wildlife experience!

John Boyd (JB)
Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

So, last night K-Pod was seen heading south on the west side of San Juan Island. But where did the J-Pod whales that were with them go? Then this morning no sign of K-Pod anywhere and no reports of the J-Pod whales that were north yesterday. However, the J-14’s and J-16’s showed up on the west side of the island heading north. So we had two wonderful trips with the J-14’s and J-16’s.

This morning we joined them off of False Bay where they were actively fishing. Lots of changing of direction as the whales sliced through the water after Salmon and several beautiful breaches as well. On the way there we found a huge group of Harbor Porpoises foraging near Henry Island. I shut down the engines and drifted for about 15 minutes as close to 100 Porpoises surfaced all around us. This was one of the coolest porpoise encounters I have had.

This afternoon we found the whales heading north up the west side of the island. We spent most of our time with the J-16’s swimming along as a family group, with little J42 popping his head up with almost every surfacing. I always love to see these little guys. They are so energetic and full of life.

As we were heading home this afternoon I received a report that the rest of J-Pod was finally found heading south down the east side of the San Juan Islands in Rosario Strait. Now the J-14’s and J-16’s are heading north and the rest are coming south. Once again, it looks like the two groups will end up on opposite ends of the islands.

This morning I received a report of J-Pod and K-Pod coming down from the Fraser River, again. They had been heading down late last night, but turned around and went back up. I calculated it out and decided that we should be able to get to them this morning, although just barely and it wouldn’t be for long. Then just before we were about to leave the dock I got a call from a friend letting me know that one of the Victoria boats had just picked up the J14’s and J16’s (still traveling separately) at Discovery Island coming east towards us!

So we ran around the bottom of the island and then headed west. We caught up with them about half way across towards San Juan Island. This is one of my favorite places to see them. They will often do some porpoising (high speed swimming) as they come across, and we were treated to lots of it today. It is such an amazing thing to watch as these 10,000 lb animals launch their bodies through the water at 10-15 knots. It was a beautiful morning on the west side.

This afternoon the rest of J-Pod and K-Pod had made it down quite a bit further than this morning.  So we decided to run north, hoping we would catch up with them in Boundary Pass (another one of my favorite places to see them).  Sure enough, we found K-Pod just south of East Point, and for a while we had a small family group all to ourselves.  This wasn’t just any group though, we were lucky enough to be able to watch K-14 and her new baby swimming and playing along with the sprouter male, K26 and his other siblings.  What a beautiful sight!!!

For the past few days the whales have been doing some interesting things by mingling families, and splitting up into several groups, and covering different areas. Today the call came in at the last minute, that first, “one” whale had been located in the southern end of Rosario Strait….and then in about 15 minutes, a few more, and then well, it was J-pod! We worked out way to the south having lots of time to view Harbor seals on Shark Reef and an adult Bald eagle that turned magically into two Bald eagles on Turn Island. For the “birding folks on our cruise we found Pelagic cormorants, Rhinocerous auklets, a Western gull, Double Crested cormorants and Black Oyster Catchers. The tidal exchange was pretty amazing in itself, and several times we shut down the engine and watched the swirling waters as the tide rushed into San Juan Channel! Once we were out into the Strait, the water flattened out and we kept our eyes focused to the East. Sure enough, the fins began to appear! We had wonderful viewing of J-2, Granny as she slid along the south end of Lopez Island along with J-27, Blackberry. Princess Angeline gave us a nice look at her saddle patch, and Polaris, J-28. We were able to cruise along in the current and fairly flat water and watch the whales for a long, long time today! Finally, Ruffles’ majestically tall fin appeared on the outside of the whole group and he moved along, stopped to turn and forage, and then took up the westerly direction again. About the time we saw a second set of fins appear coming toward the J family from the west, we decided to lower the hydrophone and see if we could detect any vocalizations. WOW! It seemed there was a lot of “conversation” going on out there! As we turned into Cattle Pass to work our way back to Friday Harbor, the J’s and K’s headed toward one another, out by the Salmon Bank bouy. It was one of those evenings when everyone would have liked to stay on and on! Nan Simpson - Marine Naturalist

Today J-Pod and K-Pod were coming down from from the Fraser River towards San Juan Island.  When they reached Turn Point, guess what J-Pod did?  Well, they turned of course and headed back up towards the Fraser.

Lucky for us, K-Pod continued south towards San Juan Island. We had a wonderful encounter with them up at the north end of the island, including a very unexpected very close pass from K26 (Lobo).

Now for the really strange part.  As we were leaving K-Pod, a friend of mine calls me from the ferry going to Anacortes to say that he has a group of whales in Rosario Strait that no one knew about.  It turns out that it is part of J-Pod (the J14’s and J16’s), more than 50 miles away from the rest of J-Pod.  This is very unusual behavior for them.

Today was a very interesting day indeed! I always like to say that you never really know what the whales are going to end up doing. Today I was proven more than correct.

This morning we all expected J-Pod and K-Pod to show up somewhere in Rosario Strait or Boundary Pass heading south from the Fraser River (which is where they went last night). Well, after an exhaustive search, by many boats, of the areas we expected them to show up, a boat from Vancouver Whale Watch heading home found J’s and K’s resting off of Matia Island and heading north! This made the private charter group on the boat this morning very happy (we weren’t too far away when the report came in), but left me a little perplexed as to what to do for our afternoon trip.

When we left for our afternoon trip the whales were already at Point Roberts (very close to our normal limit in range) and still heading north. I decided to head north to see what would happen. If the whales were moving slow and foraging we might have a chance. By the time we arrived at East Point (the place where I had to make a decision) I was getting reports of some of the whales porpoising north and others foraging back behind. The trailing group was just a couple of miles south of the Coal Docks (the furthest point I have ever gone, or want to go). I calculated it out and decided that we might be able to catch up with them if they were moving very slow, which is the report I got. Then about half way across the Strait of Georgia I found out that the trailing group was no longer foraging and were now passing the Coal Docks. Uh Oh!

Well, the skies were sunny, the seas were calm, and I just couldn’t bring myself to turn around. So we kept going and going and going, running at about 23 knots (with a little help from the flood tide) the whole way up. Then we came upon the almost mythical “T14″ buoy (well mythical to me because it was the first time I had seen it) and that is where we found a most wonderful group of J-Pod. Immediately upon our arrival we were treated to several beautiful breaches. Then lots of socializing, tail slapping, more breaching, and several pec slaps that seemed to be waving hello at Vancouver, BC in the background.

Our long run home took us via a gorgeous route through the middle of the Canadian Gulf Islands and back to San Juan Island. It was more distance and more fuel than I ever hope to see again, but I have to say it was worth the adventure and the encounter. And believe it or not we even managed to do the whole trip in only 4 hours (with a little help from the ebb tide coming home).

We had a wonderful encounter with J-Pod, K-Pod and part of L-Pod off of the northwest side of San Juan Island today. Each pod is a matrilineal family group, meaning that all offspring spend their entire lives with their mothers and that, of course, the whales do not mate within their own pods. So, it is only natural for the whales to be extra “social” when all three pods get together. There was a lot of that going on today, with several sightings of what we sometimes call “sea snakes”. Lots of spy hops as well, and general foraging and goofing off. There is really something special about seeing these guys being so playful with each other.

On the way home we encountered a couple of Peregrine Falcons soaring off of Spieden Island. We normally do not see Peregrines much, but these two have been in this same area the last few afternoons. They are amazingly fast and have no problem chasing off the errant Bald Eagle. In fact, it almost seemed that they took pleasure in dive bombing a juvenile eagle that made the mistake of flying too close to the falcons. What a cool thing to watch!

The Resident Orcas turned up again on the west side of San Juan Island this morning. It was an awesome day on the water. Here are my photos and another great report from JB:

On our first trip, the whales decided to head back up the island after going south all morning, and we were very lucky to spend some quality time observing J1 Ruffles as he fed in the currents at Kellett Bluff. It was so cool to see a whale as large as Ruffles execute a 180 degree turn as he chased salmon in the strong tides. At one time he was periscoping (just his dorsal fin showing) and was actually swimming backwards!

During our afternoon trip, the whales had decided to break up a bit with K-Pod electing to hang out between False Bay and Lime Kiln in the choppier waters, while J’s & the “L7’s” headed north. We viewed the whales near Pender Island, and for awhile, we watched a small group of 3 whales foraging, spyhopping, and breaching along the shoreline. But we had to make way and move further off-shore when L57 Faith came by. Our passengers were truly awed by the size of Faith. As the group of 3 came close enough to put a telephoto lens on for IDs, it was none other than Oreo Doublestuff Cookie (J22, J34, J38). As L57 came up to them, J34 must have decided to show off with a beautiful breach. For an 11 year-old whale, he seems to be hitting his “sprouting” early and is on track to be a massively huge whale! We watched the whales head north, and as we pulled into the dock at the end of our wildlife experience, we heard that the whales were just entering the western entrance to Active Pass.
John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince

We had two amazing wildlife trips today!!  So many animals that we normally don’t get to see.  Here are some of my photos.  I will get more info up later….