Pacific Whale Watch Association

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.

Captain Brian just reported back from today's whale watch trip this afternoon, and he described it as "one of his Top 3 wildlife encounters- ever!" The boat left Roche Harbor, San Juan Island and headed out in search of the transient Orcas that were in the area. Upon arriving they saw harbor porpoises "everywhere" and Brian and Kendall were on the alert and watching the hunting transient whales. Suddenly both transients dived down and disappeared. Everyone was scanning the waters, looking madly for the whales. Brian heard a splash, but when he looked two porpoises were missing.

Yesterday, May 13th, Captain Nancy and Kevin headed out of Friday Harbor today with a full boat of local middle schoolers. They headed down to Alden Bank, while braving strong winds from the southwest. When they arrived they saw a lot of activity from the whales, including multiple breaches! It was a long trip but the 23 young kids enjoyed the effort.

San Juan Island whale watch wildlife update for Thursday, May 7th:

Captain Pete and Kendall headed out on a whale watch tour on Thursday and were surprised and pleased to see Minke whales. These large animals are not often very active and showy on the surface, so the crew, along with all the passengers were excited to see the Minkes breach up out of the water!

Saturday's whale watching trip departed from Roche Harbor, and eported back seeing a dozen Bald Eagles on Speiden Island. These eagles were soaring, vocalizing, hunting, displaying and even fighting. Naturalist Kevin and Captain Nancy were thrilled to see so many eagles together, and especially so when at one point an adult and a juvenile met in midair, locked talons, and spun downward for a few rotations before releasing each other! This kind of display is always exciting to hear of and pretty impressive to view firsthand.