Posts Tagged ‘Harbor Porpoise’

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Friday September 30

Friday, September 30th, 2011

The last two days could have gone either way.  The morning whale reports had residents near Hein Bank, possibly heading out to the Pacific.  But like yesterday, the animals turned around and made their way back towards San Juan Island.  We found some members of K pod swimming steadily in Haro Strait as the clouds finally cleared.  We hung out with a few different groups of 4-5 whales, but could see animals spread out in every direction!

On the way home we stopped near Whale Rocks and showed our passengers the large Steller Sea Lions that seemed to have doubled in numbers over the last few days!  To top it off we also encountered Dall’s Porpoise and some really playful Harbor Porpoise in San Juan Channel!

Mike

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Sassy juveniles

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Another fabulous day.

Our first stop was for a few Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks.  Our second stop was for the ever elusive Harbor Porpoise.  It was one of the few times that I have seen a large number of them, too preoccupied while hunting, to care that we were watching.  Most of the time all we see is a little black blip at the surface and have to spend the next several minutes trying to convince passengers that the blip was actually a porpoise.  Today everyone got to see one up close.  Capt. Mike shut down and we sat in the calmest water imaginable watching no less than 10 porpoise cruising around us.  When we finally left them we continued on south toward Cattle Point.  We stopped for a couple of gregarious Steller’s Seal Lions and then ventured out into the straight.  L Pod was pretty much at South Beach when we first came upon them.  They were spread out over a tremendous area.  Once again the calm water made for easy identification of the saddle patch.

Among the first whales we saw were L2, L79, L72, and later L41 (Mega-my favorite).

We also had an amazing encounter with two juvenile whales who shot up, out of nowhere, in front of the boat, while we were shut down and proceeded to swim laps around us while we watched in amazement.  The water was calm and clear and we could see the white flash from their bellies as they scooted in past us in a blur and then darted out to regroup before doing it again.  In my whole summer out here I have not seen behavior like that from orca whales until today.  Orcas may pop up near a boat and pass by at close proximity, but it is always with an air of dignity, as though they are on a mission and could care less about boat or the people on it.  They always keep their composure and when they do let loose a little it is typically in the company of other orcas with boats watching from afar.  Today was different.  There was no breaching or rolling upside-down.  No tail slapping or lollygagging at the surface.  These two little guys were behaving, totally and completely, like a couple of hooligans.  It was awesome.  Even Capt Mike had to leave the wheelhouse and squeeze up to the railing to get a better view.  It was one of those exceptional moments that makes you want to do a fist pump and yell, “Yessss!”

Laura, Naturalist

 

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Gorgeous, Gorgeous….

Monday, September 19th, 2011

I thought yesterday was one of the calmest days we have seen this season, but I was wrong.  It was today.  We found some Orcas outside of Cattle Pass towards Hein Bank.  The first animal we got a good look at was L41.  He was generally traveling South, but not with any speed.  So we had some fun times hanging out with him.

After a little bit we headed farther north and came across a lot more of L41′s family.  They seemed to be mostly milling and resting, but after about 10 minutes of swimming in circles one of them breached unexpectedly.  That seemed to motivate the rest of the group to start tail slapping and spy hopping.  To end the encounter one of the smaller animals had a nice breach right in our passengers line of sight.

On the way home we stopped for the Steller’s around Whale Rocks, and just as we were entering the harbor we were able to shut down the engines and let a nice pod of Harbor Porpoise swim right past us!

Mike

Naturalist – San Juan Safaris

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You Name It, We saw It

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Summer seems to have left the islands as quickly as it arrived, but the animals are still around!  We headed out in to Haro Strait this afternoon and came across a group of Transient Orca.  The Residents haven’t been seen in a day or two, but the Transients were a great encounter.  The mature male of the group had a huge dorsal fin which gave our passengers a very big target to photograph.

On the way home we added another cetacean to our check list when we came across a nice group of Dall’s Porpoise.  They weren’t too interested in the boat but just slowly meandered along as we got a few good looks.  After leaving the Dall’s we encountered a large bird ball that gave us high hopes for finding a Minke Whale.  Sure enough after a few patient minutes we had one surface a few times near the group of birds.

To end the day we stopped at Whale Rocks to get some looks at the large Steller Sea Lions  both on the rocks and in the water, as well as harbor seals.  Finally a few harbor porpoise popped up long enough for everyone to see as we were all looking at a Bald Eagle perched on Lopez!

Mike

Naturalist – San Juan Safaris

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Aloha Hello Minkes, Aloha Good-Bye Pacific Northwest

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Ok, readers, today was my last day of the season out on the water in the Pacific Northwest and we were duly rewarded with wonderful sea conditions and one of the ocean underdogs: Minke Whales!  Sure, it was a little overcast but the sea responds well to this.  As we made our way out from the harbor and towards Cattle Pass, we saw twenty to thirty harbor porpoises and numerous swimming harbor seals and steller sea lions.  We even saw a bald eagle–my first in about two weeks!  Passengers were constantly on the lookout for appearing and disappearing wildlife as we watched six to eight steller sea lions pop up and disappear off Whale Rocks.

Just between Whale Rocks and Salmon Bank, as we headed out, Naturalist Laura spotted a small–juvenile–minke whale being very surface active.  This minke was not foraging under the usual cloud of swarming sea birds, but rather finding its own dinner.  A little further out we saw two more minkes and continued to watch them in the flat calm perfect conditions that the Salish Sea rarely doles out.  They were hanging out with hundreds of sea birds and a few hungry seals.

Hoping to see a glimpse of the orcas, we continued around San Juan Island with a jaunt through Mosquito Pass by Roche Harbor and a stop for some young harbor seals at Sentinel Island.  We even checked out the strange wildlife at Spieden Island, finding many mouflon sheep that appeared to already have their darker winter coats.  Two adult bald eagles and a juvenile all sharing a salmon on the shore topped off our adventures.  Time for me to migrate myself… Back to Maui!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Seal-links

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Today was a day of lots and lots of harbor seals!  Everywhere!  And many of them were lined up like sausage links!  Transient orca sausage links!

We first went north towards Waldron Island and found them basking on a nearby rock.  Next, we went further north into Canadian waters and found them off of Saturna Island where five of them were lined up in a row.  Out by Sentinel Island, we found another thirty or so, with about six babies hauled out along the shoreline in their little “nursery” area.  And we even saw several swimming through the many channels we traveled through on our wildlife safari.

But it wasn’t all seal sausages today.  We also saw the elusive harbor porpoises off of Turn Point on Stuart Island, the most northwestern point in the continental US!  They were milling about and surfacing at random.

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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The southern residents are baaack!

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

With two full boats, we headed up north across the border and into Canadian waters, all in search of the Southern Resident Killer Whales that had been out to sea (to the best of our knowledge) for a few days.  We ended up in the Strait of Georgia, just south of the city of Vancouver, when a passenger tapped me on the shoulder and said, “look, there!”  And there they were!  Orcas spanning over a quarter of a mile were lined up in smaller groups and heading north.  As we paralleled them for a while, we were able to identify J-27, “Blackberry,” as one of the more recently-matured whales of the community.  He had a juvenile–possibly his little brother “Mako”–and two females and/or larger juveniles.  The orcas engaged in just about every surface behavior they have in their repertoire, from tail slapping to spy hopping to even breaching, it was all there!  After our long journey north, we eventually did have to depart and head back to Friday Harbor but along the way we got a glimpse of some napping harbor seals and some porpoising harbor porpoises (yes, a verb AND a noun!).  Welcome back, resident orcas!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Slight chance of wind with heavy marine mammals predicted

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

The sun may have been shining today, but it was raining marine mammals!!! Shortly after leaving Friday Harbor and heading south we saw a large group of Harbor porpoise. We cut the engine and the miniature Cetaceans that are famously shy were all around the boat and even porpoising out of the water, exposing much of their flanks. Then once in Salmon Bank a Minke whale’s long back broke the surface and was soon followed by its small hooked dorsal fin.

As we entered Cattle Pass back toward the harbor, we received the exciting call that there were orcas beside Lopez. Captain Mike quickly maneuvered the boat in a 180 and we were back out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Four to five orcas, one a juvenile, were seen cruising around the rocky outcrops near Iceberg Point. They were of the transient community with solid saddle patches and wide dorsal fins that angled further toward their posterior than the residents. We left them as they slowly started making their way north.

On our way back, we noticed that Whale Rocks were crowded with gigantic Steller sea lions and encircled by a few harbor seals. This happened to be not far, and in the same direction the transients were moving towards. We wondered if a pinnipede smorgasbord was in the making.

Kirsten, naturalist

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Wonder-full Humans

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

It warms my heart when I see full grown adults get excited–yelling, pointing, shouting, oohing and aahing–over marine life!  ‘Cause I’m one of those adults too!

Today, with no orca reports in the Salish Sea, we headed out on the water with a boat full of curious and eager passengers and lots of hope to see marine life.  South from Friday Harbor, we started off with some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, five of which were lined up side by side like sausage links!  Further on at Cattle Pass, we saw a plethora of sea life from gulls of every variety to cormorants (aroma of fecal matter included) to more harbor seals to fifteen or so big Steller sea lions grumbling at one another.

Out of the pass, we had heard, swam a minke and so we went to investigate.  After five minutes of searching–with the distraction of sea lions nearby for any short attention spans–the Captain of the Sea Lion spotted the tell-tale curved Minke whale dorsal fin.  And another two minutes after that, passengers noticed it too!  It appeared a little on the small side–a juvenile perhaps?–and continued swimming in what looked like foraging maneuvers.  After twenty minutes of watching, we decided to move on and take our luck around San Juan Island in a circumnavigation.

Along the West side of San Juan Island, we found several harbor porpoises headed south, and at Spieden, we saw bald eagles and non-native Mouflon sheep and fallow deer.  With every wave we crested and every splash we saw, our guests were in good spirits, excitedly pointing and telling their neighbors, “Porpoise, there!  NO!  Over THERE!”  Wildlife!  It’s wild.  It’s life.  What’s more exciting?!  Well, other than the curious humans shouting about it to each other!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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August Whale Sightings

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Well, we just did the math.  From August 1- 29 we have ran a total of 49 Whale Watches.  Of those 49 trips we successfully located whales 47 times.  And not just Orca, but Minke and Humpback Whales as well!!  That is a 96% success rate at seeing whales on our trips.

On top of whales we have also been seeing Stellar’s Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoise, Dall’s Porpoise, and Bald Eagles on a regular basis.  One day we even encountered an Elephant Seal.

Every day is different.  We never know what exactly is going to happen.  That is what makes everyday exciting!

 

Captain Mike

San Juan Safaris

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