With a report of a Humpback whale on the south end of San Juan Island we departed our Friday Harbor location with a full boat of eager guests. Approaching Cattle Pass we started seeing the blow of the Humpback. After watching the typical behavior of 3-4 surfacings before the fluke up dive followed by around a 4 minute down time, the humpback began an amazing display of breaching and pec slaps.
Humpback whales have the largest pectoral fins of all the great whales measuring 1/3 the length of their bodies or around 15 feet. Then whale starting an amazing display of full breaches followed by pectoral slaps, more breaching, and more pec slaps. A guest onboard was our official breach counter. This Humpback breached an amazing 33 times.
An amazing experience that no one will soon forget.
Kevin, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris