(6/28/17 - Kittiwake 12:00 PM Departure)
Today M/V Kittiwake went out for a private charter with Amy, Steve and their Evergreen guide Justin, and what a delightful group they were! We moseyed to Hein Bank, a common feeding ground for the larger baleen whales in the area, and looked at other wildlife along the way. We stopped to see some harbor seals hauled out. Those pups should start appearing on the rocks anytime now. After getting that load of cuteness we continued on towards the shallow bank where there were reports of two humpback whales milling. We made it to the area where the whales were leisurely swimming with no apparent direction. We watched as the two well-known whales, Heather and Divot, surfaced together. These whales are some of our more frequent visitors to the San Juan Islands. It was also very nice to see the two whales in slight synchronization, we even got a look at two flukes at once! Generally, baleen whales are solitary but they will pair up together outside of breeding season for unknown reasons. They won’t be mating during this time or have any kind of genetic relationship, just whale buds! After seeing our double tail flukes, we decided to go to another feeding ground to look for some minke whales. Lucky for us, we found one! We located this minke whale by finding the bait ball that it was feeding from. Bait balls are when small schooling fish are corralled to the surface of the water by a predator underneath, which creates a congregation of birds feeding on the fish at the reachable surface. Bait balls are the easiest and most efficient way to find a minke whale or even some of our larger baleen visitors. Our guests today thoroughly enjoyed seeing their first whales ever! Thanks Amy and Steve for being such positive guests.
