I feel like we have had a lot of great trips this summer and have been luck so far in September with a fairly high percentage of whale sightings. Of all the trips we have had since we started in April there are a handful that stick out vividly in my memory as exceptional. Today might have trumped them all.
The one nice thing about this cloudy weather is that it is glassy, flat, and the flat light makes for easy spotting. We left the harbor today and headed north. Half way up the San Juan Channel we encountered Dall"s Porpoise. They were in a good mood and stayed nearby, bow riding and surfing our wake for several minutes. Out in front of us a little seal popped up with a fat salmon in his mouth. As we were leaving the Dall's we saw what looked to be at first a large Stellar's Sea Lion, then as we shifted our vantage point resembled a piece of driftwood, but eventually moved to reveal that it was, in fact, a large male ELEPHANT SEAL! What? Here? Yes. The large, protruding nose was a dead giveaway. He was rather shy and slipped below the surface, not to be seen by us again.
We headed out the Speiden channel into Haro Straight. As soon as we got into Haro we could see blows, and dorsal fins, and more dorsal fins. It was so flat that we could see for miles and we could tell that there were whales in every direction for miles. We were the only boat with the J pod trailers. We shut down and watched a small group composed of J16, J26, and J42 and 36. They looked to be just traveling. There were no long dives and their pace was slow and steady. We could hear each and every breath from whales near and far away from us. A single female surfaced off our other side and we watched her glide gracefully past us. There were so many whales in all directions that we dropped our hydrophone to take a listen. It was amazing. It was as if we had stepped into the middle of a crowded party. It was so calm that we could even hear echolocation clicks. While we were sitting, watching, and listening to the orcas something big exploded to the surface about a quarter of a mile away from us. It was like watching a submarine shooting to the surface. It happened two more times. In that time I was able to gather my wits and identify the large, torpedo-like object as a breaching Minke Whale. I have never seen a Minke breach before. It was awesome!
On our way back in we saw Harbor Seals, land mammals on Speiden Island and another Dall's Porpoise that surfaced off our bow with a loud exhalation that made me jump in surprise.
You know it is a good day when your passengers just giggle the whole time. You know it is a really good day when your captain calls his friends to tell them he just saw a breaching Minke and your naturalist needs to take a time out because she is in total sensory overload. Today was that day. Amazing.
Laura, Naturalist