Jordan | August 8, 2018 | M/V Sea Lion | 1:30 trip
What a wonderful day out on the water! The skies were clear and blue and the water was especially gorgeous. Captain Pete, Mariana and I headed out of Friday Harbor with reports of a whale up in Canada!
So, we headed up through the San Juan Channel and boated along the east side of Stuart Island and past Turn Point, the most northwestern point in the continental U.S.! Then we traveled across Boundary Pass and into Canadian waters up to Pender Islands. Here we found a humpback whale!
This massive creature at about 45 feet long dove right next to the shoreline. It looked like he was basically touching the rocks! Moving incredibly slowly at only 3 miles per hour, this baleen whale was most likely feeding underwater with his huge mouth full of baleen plates. They use this baleen to filter all the saltwater back out into the water, leaving only food left in their mouths!
Every few minutes the humpback whale would take a deep dive and we’d see his massive tail pop up out of the water! With the opportunity to compare his fin to our whale catalogue, we were able to identify this individual as Yogi! Yogi has two large white spots on the tips of his tail that are very unique just to him. In fact, each whale has a tail fin as unique as a human thumbprint!
On the way back, we spotted some harbor seals and even a bald eagle! It was really fun to see nature in it’s natural habitat. Eventually we returned home happy with a great day!