K pod sighted Saturday June 6th
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.
After a long boat ride (cruising with the current at 18 knts) we encountered the whales just a few miles south of Point Roberts, Canada. There we saw K 20, Spock, and her 5 year old calf Comet. Spock is a female killer whale with quite a large dorsal fin. In fact it is so large that researchers had long thought her to be a male, so it was a big surprise the day she was spotted with a calf! These two were swimming slowly north at a pretty relaxed pace. We were able to spend time with them, watching them surface and dive in unison, and get fantastic clear looks at the dorsals and saddle patches.
After a long spell Nancy turned our boat south and as we headed down the channel and neared Skipjack Island, we started seeing the small fins of harbor porpoise all around us. Nancy shut off the engine and we counted dozens of porpoise surrounding the boat. They were pretty unconcerned by us and continued to surface. It was a pretty neat sight!
