Today was an exceptional day, amazing wildlife everywhere and beautiful weather! The animals seemed to get bigger and bigger as we continued our trip. We started by observing some harbor seals warming themselves on the rocks, these animals weigh about 300lbs as adults. Our next stop was the much larger Sea Lions that we spotted in Cattle pass. They have been hanging out in this area fishing for the past few days and it's been exciting each time to see them. We were now on our way towards Salmon Bank just off the west side of San Juan Island to see the Orcas.
I have to admit I have been a bit spoiled this summer seeing the Orcas so consistently and being able to say "yes that's J pod member Ruffles" at least every other day or so. Well it's been about 4 days since I've seen Ruffles (J-1) and I was very excited to see his big wavy fin today. There was lots of social activity today and members of different pods were seen mixing and mingling. Maybe they had been apart for a few days too and were just as glad to see each other as we were to see them! The Orcas were not the only show around though. A minke whale appeared traveling right in the middle of the orcas. These baleen whales are just slightly bigger than the Orcas. Minke whales can be very curious and today they proved that. We were observing the minke whale and the Orcas for some distance when all of them took a long dive. We sat patiently waiting for them to reappear when all of the sudden Captain Mike alerted everyone to all of the bubbles appearing at the bow. The water was crystal clear and as he looked down a minke slide gracefully beneath our boat. Everyone rushed to the side just in time to see this curious creature appear out the other side. We were eye to eye with the Minke whale since he was turned sideways staring up....perhaps he was out people watching?
I almost forgot we saw a Puffin today! These extremely cute birds have almost all but disappeared from this area. They like rocky cliffs with very few people around to nest on. These diving birds can reach depths up to 80 ft and hold their breath for up to 1 minute! Like I said it was an exceptional day on the water!
