Northbound from the harbor, we soon found our dead harbor seal with about five bald eagles sharing its carcass off of Sentinel Island. Day three of its destruction and the seal still had some meat on it to feed the local raptors. Onwards around the north end of San Juan Island, we started to see sporadic dorsal fins belonging to harbor porpoises. Into the Haro Straight, we passed Lime Kiln State Park on the west side of the island. We were lucky to have sunny weather with excellent visibility: we could see Mount Rainier, over 150 miles away!
Getting further south from the Haro Straight into the Straight of Juan de Fuca, we started to see seabirds. Then more and more seabirds. And with those seabirds there were Minke whales! With the perfectly flat calm water and light breezes, we could hear the Minke's exhale. All in all we saw four whales, with six reported in the area (one off of Lopez Island and three to five off of Salmon bank). Based on their zigzagging travel motions and their head and rostrum rises, the Minke whales appeared to be foraging, sharing fish with the seabirds. On the way home, we saw stellar sea lions, harbor seals and several more harbor porpoises.
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris