Pacific Whale Watch Association

8/28/2010: We started our journey today by venturing through the inner San Juan Islands. We spotted harbor seals in a few different spots along the way. Next we exited the San Juans through Cattle Pass and then we headed northwest and found orcas along the west side of San Juan Island. It was J-pod and K-pod orcas. The first few whales we spotted were J26, Mike, K22, Sekiu, and K33 Tika. They gave us some great viewing as they came up together. We also spotted a larger group closer to shore including J27, Blackberry, J34, Doublestuf, J28, Polaris, J46, and others.

We had our first superpod of the year today!! It rained on us most of the day but the whales didn't mind at all. Our viewing started at Colville Island where we spotted some harbor seals and a few harlequin ducks. A few minutes later we watched a black oystercatcher harass a bald eagle that was perched near his nest on Swirl Island. We caught up with a superpod of orcas near Lime Kiln park on the west side of San Juan Island. The orcas were milling around near the shoreline for most of our visit today. They seemed to be doing lots of socializing, and mating today.

We traveled southward for our trip today with word that some transient orcas were down near Whidbey Island. On our way to find them we spotted several animals including a great blue heron, bald eagle, and harbor seals. As we got within sight of the orcas near Eastern Bank we spotted a tufted puffin so we circled around to watch him for a while. Within minutes we were on scene with the transient orcas. They were swimming eastward toward Whidbey Island in a zig-zag manner.

Yesterday Captain Brian and naturalist Kevin traveled quite a ways to see killer whales. The past few days we've had the whales in our backyards, but for this trip the boat had to catch up with them on their northbound journey. Although it was a long ride, everyone on the boat was pleased to have had the chance to see these magnificent creatures in the wild.

Whale watch report for Saturday June 6th. Nancy and I left Roche Harbor, San Juan Island and headed north in search of some members of K pod that had been spotted earlier that day.