Humpback Spyhop
9/12/2010: The cloudy conditions today made for great wildlife spotting on the water. Our first whale of the day was a minke whale just off Lopez Island. This whale was feeding among many birds and bait balls and she was very cooperative. Next we worked our way out toward Victoria and spotted many harbor porpoises, and some harbor seals along the way. Eventually we found two humpback whales swimming together. It was the same two humpback whales we watched yesterday; a female and a youngster. They were very playful when we first arrived. The were rolling around, splashing, raising their tail flukes, and pectoral fins, swimming in circles, and swimming upside-down at times. They were putting on a great show for about ten minutes, and then eventually they calmed down, and started surfacing side by side in a more regular pattern. After we said goodbye to these, very active, humpbacks we also spotted another minke whale on our way back toward the dock. This whale, or possibly two, was feeding among a huge flock of gulls that were working on a large bait ball. Naturalist Bart Rulon
