Oh What a Night

We began our Sunset Tour heading south through the San Juan Channel.  We stopped at Turn Island to see if anyone was home and sure enough a number of Harbor Seals were resting on the rocky shores of the intertidal zone.  After spending a few minutes with the Harbor Seals we continued motoring south and saw 7 Steller Sea Lions relaxing on Whale Rocks.  Another 2 Sea Lions were swimming nearby; these two individuals were very curious and kept inching closer to the boat as they surfacing to take long looks at us. 

As we cruised along the southern end of San Juan Island we found several members of J-Pod offshore of Eagle Cove.  We were first greeted by J37 “Hy’Shqa” and her newborn calf J49, who were traveling with J14 “Samish”, J37’s mother.  Three generations of whales traveling in very close proximity with one another.  A-MA-ZING!  We also saw J34 “Doublestuff” traveling with another 4 individuals.  J27 “Blackberry” was also nearby, cruising along by himself.   A few of the whales were surface active:  lobtailing, spyhopping, and breaching.  As we headed back to Friday Harbor we watched the sun set over the islands casting a magnificent glow across the Salish Sea.

Amy, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris Whale Watching and Wildlife Tours