(April 16, 2017) Today Captain Mike piloted our international crew out to the expansive waters southeast of San Juan Island where the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Haro and Rosario Straits, and the Puget Sound converge. Often the area is characterized by violent seas and stiff wind, but today the waters were placid with barely a breath of wind. The snow-capped Olympic Mountains towered above us; Mt. Baker and the twin sisters loomed large to the northeast, and the unreasonable mass of Mt. Rainier levitated on the southern horizon.
Oh, and there was the whale! A fourty-foot behemoth sighed loudly on this still day, sending geysers of salt spray into the air. The lumbering beast moved with the urgency of a banana slug, filling us with wonder about the scene below the surface. This slow-motion show was most certainly the humpback equivalent of the shocking carnage we witness when killer whales dine on seal. The humpback was locked in a pattern of deep dives, herding a frightened school of baitfish to the surface where there were few exits aside from the gaping maw of their shepherd. From the surface, we caught glimpses of the whale’s baleen as it lunged at the fishes. Cleverly adapting to exploit an abundant but diminutive prey, the ancestors of some whales abandoned their teeth in favor of engineering bristly rows of baleen that could strain krill from a gulp of sea water.
We capped our safari with a survey of a favorite, fragrant destination: Whale Rocks. Situated on the conveyor belt of sea food created by Cattle Pass, the bare rocks were covered in ripe bird guano, bald eagles, belching sea lions, and bloated harbor seals.
Andrew Munson
Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion
San Juan Safaris
