Woooeeee, the whales made us work for it today! Resident killer whales were reported at nearly the farthest point we can travel on our trips and they weren't coming our way south either. We loaded up both boats and headed north right out of Friday Harbor with not a moment to spare to stop and gaze at other islands as we went. We crossed the border into Canada at the Haro Straight, went into Plumper Sound and between Mayne and Saturna Islands to pop out on the other side in the Strait of Georgia: we could see the city of VANCOUVER! Holy moly. OK, a little farther north along Mayne Island and BAM: whales!
They were all over the place and being a little sassy too. It looked like J30 "Riptide" and friends/family from J-pod were together, with several cow-calf pairs. Even further, many of the calves--and some of the adults--were incredibly active, with tail slapping, pec slapping, upside down tail slapping, SPY-HOPPING, and--are you ready for this?--breaching! And not just the lazy kinda-sorta breaches; we're talking full on clear-the-water breaching!
Eventually, as it always goes in wildlife watching, we had to leave the whales to their Canadian frolics and head back to San Juan Island. Who knows, maybe they will decide to head south today or their counterparts, the transients, might come into the area instead.
Serena, Naturalist
San Juan Safaris