Some excellent shots from Jim Bachman on 9/21 and 9/29, our final tour of the season.
Sept 15
We didn’t see any whales today, but we saw lots of other wildlife.
On our way south we got to see lots of harbor porpoise. It was also
low tide at Viti, and there were so many harbor seals napping and
resting. We got to see the cormorant nests as well. This time of year we see a lot of common mures too.
My favorite part of today was looking at whale rocks. There are always so many stellers hauled out, and one was standing very tall on the highest point. There were also some playing in the water!
We did a huge circumnavigation of the San Juans in search of whales.
South to Hein Bank and north over the top of Sucia, but unfortunately, no luck.
Sept 17
Today we went North to Skipjack island, where other whale watching vessels informed us that there were two male orcas traveling together. We got to hang out with T49C and T65A5 today.
T49c is a 26 year old fully sprouted male who is quite a bit larger than
10 year old T65A5. It was such a treat seeing these two swim together.
Seeing lone males is a little uncommon, but definitely not unheard of. Usually males will stick with matriarchs, but sometimes they become independent. We got some great looks at them swimming in front of the Patos Island lighthouse.
After leaving the whales, we ventured toward Clements Reef where there were lots of harbor seals and also Steller sea lions! It is always so fun to see the size difference between the two pinniped species.
Sept 18
We had to go pretty far south today to meet up with Two-Spot the humpback off Dallas Bank. He was giving us good looks with pretty consistent surfacing for around 30 minutes.
Then his behavior changed and he popped up within 100 yards angling toward the boat, so we shut off our engines, and waited to see what he was going to do.
He went under the boat and came up right along side us, so close that we were able to see him under the water! It was amazing.
On the way back we also got some looks at some Dall’s porpoises south of Lopez.
Sept 19
We headed through the middle of the islands today to start our search. At Shaw, Cptn Cassidy decided to head north where the fog was reported to clear up.
Not long after we started north to continue our search passengers spotted a humpback near Flattop Island. We believe it was a juvenile we’ve been seeing all summer.
The humpback gave us great looks with really consistent surfacings, and even popped right next to our bow once, forcing us to go into neutral, and let him pass through. Always thrilling.
Sept 20
We had plenty of time today to stop by Viti Rocks and check out the harbor seals, and the buoys nearby where we saw sea lions as well.
Ferry passengers had reported 6 orcas in Upright Passage, so we didn’t have to go far before we met up with the T60 brothers D & E, and the T137s. We got to spend almost 2 hours with them as they traveled up into the East Sound of Orcas Island.
We got really good looks at all 6 of the orcas and passengers were excited to find whales so early in the day.
Sept 21
We knew exactly where we were going as soon as we left the dock today. The whales were basically in our backyard!
We spent a lot of time with the T49As today. One of the males, T49A1 or Noah, was hanging around a rock pile with some harbor seals around it. He was engaging in hunting behavior, and gave us one really neat spy hop.
We couldn’t tell if he was successful in his hunt, but he ended up moving south, away from the rest of his family, T49A1 is known for traveling separately from others in his pod.
Nonetheless, after hanging out with him, we went through Peavine Pass where we saw the rest of his family!
There is a calf in this family who is just a couple years old and he is loved by the community. His name is Charlie II, and he has a very cute underbite!
Sept 22
The encounters we had today were amazing. We were heading north on a whim, but we lucked out when another whale watching boat picked up a T-Party meet up of Transient Orcas near the Belle Chain Islets north of the San Juans across the border into Canada.
There were 23 whales total and they were showing all sorts of behaviors! Lots of breaches, backward flips, tails, spy hops, etc. It was just an amazing interaction to witness. At one point, It looked like they were all swimming on top of each other.
They were really enjoying each others company, we even got a close pass from chainsaw (T63) himself. There were whales from multiple different family groups like the T35s, T36As, T36s, T65s, T63s, and the T137s.
I could have watched them all day. There were multiple simultaneous spy hops and sideways swimming. Something I will never forget! It was also my first time seeing the famous Chainsaw with his notches out of the dorsal fin.
Sept 25
Despite the all day downpour, we had a great day watching T49C off of Shaw Island. After a couple days of no luck with whales, it was especially exciting to get some breaches and tail slaps from him as we got on scene.
We got to spend around an hour with him as he cruised the shoreline of Shaw. In the rain and fog we were still able to get good looks and the lighting really made the shoreline scenery pop. A great day for my last whale watch of the season.
On the way back, we found a group of around 50 porpoises that mostly looked like harbor, but may have been Dall’s hybrids. Cptn Michael got them to play in our wake, which was incredible to witness. Porpoises almost never engage with us. What a great finale.
Sept 28
We booked it south to the west of Hein bank. There were reports from earlier in the day, but it was a long haul to get there. Even though we had a long trip down, it was so beautiful.
We stopped to see sea lions, harbor seals, and porpoises. We hung out with the T46Bs for an hour and saw the new calf!
It still has some orange and even gave us a sassy tail wave. It is amazing to see the size difference of a newborn to the matriarch.
Then on the way back we got to see Castle Rock, and squeezed through a tight passage, and drove past the Burrows Island Lighthouse.
