Today was a full day of whale awesomeness! We had 2 great trips on the water today. The first trip we caught up with J pod on the west side of San Juan Island near Lime Kiln. We were able to spend some quality time with the whales and get some great close looks at L87 (Onyx) who is commonly seen with Jpod and traveling with J2 our southern resident that is estimated to be 103 years old! We continued the action on the second trip.
We caught up with the whales again near Turn Point on Stuart Island, and they were excited! It seemed like the smaller immediate families were joining together and Jpod was happy to be reunited. We saw a ton of breaches, spy hops, and whales rolling around playing together at the service. The most amazing part was when we dropped the hydrophone in the water and got to listen to whale vocals! It was beautiful to listen and watch whales at the same time. The resident whales are known for their communication and constant chatter beneath the service and it was so special to get an opportunity to hear it, that doesn't always happen on our whale watches.
All in all it was another great day whale watching in the San Juan Islands.
Naturalist Chelsea
M/V Sealion