Top Row: T100 Biggs pod porpoising right off the Chuckanut Coast on 9/1 by Kurt Leipold
Middle Row: Humpback Aerie and Stellers in the Straight of Juan de Fuca on 9/3 by Lincoln Humphry
Bottom Row: T100’s with T124D’s in a T-Party by Deception Pass on a foggy 9/6 by Leo Solomon
Sept 1st
Today was a wild day with captain and naturalist a bit nervous that we might end up with no whales. Our morning started off with reports of whales moving away from us, already at the extent of our reach, so the crew was busy searching the route with binoculars in hopes of coming across a whale closer. We lucked out! A passenger spotted blows by South Pender Island in Canada that ended up being a humpback whale! This was a great spot for us to be, and allowed us about an hour with a very friendly humpback. We got several close passes and some excellent tail fluke looks as the whale headed northwest up the Pender Islands coastline.
It was a long journey today, at about 87 nautical miles, but on our journey home, one of our crew picked up orcas right in Bellingham Bay! With a few extra minutes to spare, we got to make it a double species day, watching the T100’s (Hutchins, Laurel and Estrella) work the Chuckanut coastline on a kill. The activity was awesome to watch, because the orcas kept porpoising high out of the water, lunging after a harbor porpoise that they were hunting. We saw some pretty inspiring acrobatics and speed out of this family of three today.. It was super special to be able to add these orcas to our already successful humpback day.
Sep 2
What a beautifully calm day in the Salish Sea. We got into the heart of the islands with no reports so we tested our luck heading south. We stopped at Whale Rocks to visit with our sea lion friends. They gave us a great display at their agility in the water, splashing and rolling through the waterway and their mobility on land as some were hauling out and finding a comfy spot for a rest.
The Strait of Juan de Fuca was glassy which is not always the case. When we got into the strait, there was a layer of fog which made spotting a little tricky, but as we continued to cruise west, the fog dissipated and visibility opened up. We did some big loops around McArthur Bank and Hein Bank scanning for some baleen whales. We came across a lot of common murres and gulls sitting patiently for bait-balls to come to them.
A fellow whale watcher found two humpbacks circling west of Hein Bank. We got to spend a good chunk of time hanging out with one of these gentle giants. This whale gave us excellent looks as it moved around us. We got a great look at the blow hole as they came up for a breath. We had some lovely surface time with this animal as they were not diving down very deep. They had a bit of white on their dorsal fin which was a unique marking.
As we were departing, they finally fluked giving us a solid look at their easiest identifier. We were not able to see the underside, but the shape of this individual’s fluke is extremely unique, being more round in shape than pointed, and two notches out of the top and bottom of the right side of the fluke. The whale was CRC 20227 who hasn’t been documented in the Salish Sea before! Super fun to see these two humpbacks circling around feeding out there. We cruised home via Bellingham Channel which was harbor porpoise central!
Sep 3
With the only reports coming from way out west and north, we booked it through the middle of the San Juan’s and then south into the strait of Juan de Fuca. The flood tide was whirling through Cattle Pass as we got out into bigger waters. The smoke and haze completely blocked out the Olympics giving the strait a surreal feeling. We caught up with a feeding humpback whale, BCY0983 – Aerie, who gave us amazing looks at their spout, their dorsal fin and even a rare display of lunge feeding. The top of their mouth sticking vertically out of the water as they gobbled down a big mouthful of bait fish. It was quite a treat getting to spend time with this gentle giant making big circles around the south side of Haro Strait.
The amount of birds out there today were impressive too! Hundreds of common murres, Heermans, glaucous and mew gulls, we even saw a sooty shearwater which I have never seen out in the strait before. We even saw a flock of red neck phalaropes who have an insane migration from the arctic circle to southern central America.
After we left the Strait of Juan de Fuca we stopped at Whale rocks, a wildlife refuge hosting a steller sea lion rookery. We got a great look at many sea lions hauled out; some swimming, some fighting, we got great smells of their stank and we even got to hear their guttural growl. We were even fortunate to see the rare sea otter rolling around in the bull kelp. We made our way back through the inner islands and made our last pit stop to Spindle Rocks to check out some harbor seals. It was a diverse wildlife day in the Salish Sea.
Sept 4
We ventured out into some thick fog this morning coming across the bay. With hopes of the fog lifting, we went north and our wishful thinking paid off. The fog bank rolled back and visibility increased 10-fold! We cruised north for a while and then headed west making this trip an international one.
We caught up with the T49A’s on the west side of Pender Island, BC. Led by Nan T49A, we got amazing views of 4 of her 6 children; 49A3, A4, A5 and A6. As we got on scene, this pod gave us some awesome looks at their hunting behaviors. We saw fluke slapping, big splashes, a little bit of orca belly and lots of direction changes. We hypothesize they took down a harbor porpoise as we saw so many of them along our entire route including when we got on scene with our orca whales. It is always astounding to watch a pod work together to catch a meal.
We even got to witness some members of the pod moonwalking, instead of the head coming up first then dorsal, the dorsal comes up first and the head comes up last and the whale’s momentum is going backwards instead of forwards. This behavior is specific to Bigg’s and it is a passed down practice of sharing a meal. Essentially the whale with the prey will hold it in its mouth while the other members will take chunks off to eat. An exciting view while arriving on scene. As they kept moving north, we ventured back south in the direction of home. We cruised between the outer islands, specifically Sucia & Matia heading towards Hales Passage to make our way back into Bellingham bay.
Sep 5th
We started off with a bit of a foggy crossing out of Bellingham Bay into Rosario Strait. We stopped at Viti Rocks, a national wildlife refuge. It was low tide so there were lots of birds, some ochre starfish, a great blue heron, and plenty of hauled out harbor seals. Harbor seals need to haul out every 4-6 hours and this is definitely a favorite spot.
We trended north to avoid the thick fog down south, and went over the top of Orcas Island. We got a call from a fellow whale watching boat that there were whales in San Juan Channel, so we made our way back down south. The whales turned out to be the T75Bs with the new calf! We met up with them at the south end of Shaw Island, but then they decided to turn north which gave us a very close pass! It is always so lucky to be in the right place at the right time. We saw their blow holes SO clearly along with saddle patches and scarring. What a wild reminder of how big these animals are. Then they followed the east side of San Juan Island northward.
This group has been hanging around a lot lately, and we’re glad to have them. After spending an hour with them, we went home through the “middle sound” as we call it, seeing severeal state ferries in action. We ducked through Obstruction Pass and in between Toe head and Cypress. We made a last stop at Eliza Rocks where we saw a lot more harbor seals snoozing.
Sept 6th
This morning was socked in with fog and haze in all directions from the dock, so we were nervous that wildlife could be quite difficult to come by. We lucked out, as another member of the PWWA picked up some orcas by Deception Pass and Burrows Island! After a brief stop at Viti Rocks to watch some harbor seals, we made our way south down Bellingham Channel to make it to the T100s and T124Ds grouped up in a T-Party!
The journey had a uniquely serene feel, with all the fog barely hanging above the surface of the water. As we came on scene with the orcas, we saw them through a unique dusky glow, watching them surface and breathe together as they zig-zagged up the shoreline. After one long deep breath, they surfaced right off of our bow! We of course quickly went neutral, as we drifted into some dense fog while the orcas moved north away from us. The fog makes everything much more dramatic, giving us quite the unique experience.
The whale watch boats on scene actually lost the group of orcas for about 20 minutes, when we couldn’t find where they’d disappeared to in the fog. Passengers spread out all over the boat to be on the lookout for them, and one of our passengers actually re-spotted them for all of us! It’s incredibly helpful to have everyone willing to help the crew look, and allowed us to finish out our hour on scene with these orcas.
Our journey home had us looking for more wildlife on the west side of Cypress Island, but as we came over the top of Cypress, we actually came back on scene with the same orcas busy on a hunt! This look was no longer in fog so we got a nice clear view of some spyhops, tail lobs, a back half-breach from baby Dune and lots of porpoising! It turned out to be a lovely whale watch, despite the fog, and because of the fog.
Sep 7
Viti Rocks was absolutely rockin’ with wildlife at low tide today. We saw a great blue heron, black turnstones, a steller in the water, and our other classic Viti residents. We even saw some of those beautiful purple ochre starfish too. We ventured west to another early stop at the Sinclair marker, where two steller sea lions were lounging about. They were yawning and scratching and cuddling. Harbor seals and steller sea lions need to haul out to thermoregulate, warming up from the cool water, so we see them fairly often. We went through Peavine Pass and spotted three turkey vultures circling above Blakely Island. They are scavengers with a keen sense of smell.
After arriving in San Juan channel, we went northwest to Waldron Island where the T75Bs were frolicking. When we got on scene they were immediately killing what looked like a pinniped. There was one quick movement and shortly after we saw blood in the water. They did some feeding behavior like milling and moon walking! One of the whales did a HUGE spy hop after the feeding was over! A little bit of celebrating with some tails also. We went between Sucia and Patos Islands on our way home to get a glance at Clements Reef, where we saw seals and sea lions, and black oyster catchers. It was another exciting week in the Salish Sea.
