Whales

While our son was here we went whale watching - a first for all three of us. We drove an hour and a half north to Anacortes where  Outer Island Expeditions picked us up. The boat stopped at Orcas Island to get more passengers. There were about 30 people in our group – from California, Bellevue, Redmond, Miami, New York, and France. Three staff were on board – Captain Matt, Captain in training Josh and naturalist Katie. All three were very knowledgeable and clearly loved and respected these animals. 

Patrick as we're leaving Orcas Island

Captain Matt posted the following on the company’s Facebook page about our adventure – “On Monday we took out our brand new vessel Blackfish III on its first whale watch expedition and boy were we in for a treat! Started off with a humpback whale near the Canadian border, then when word of a group of transient orca came in we just had to go the extra mile to see the T101 group. From there it was a long ride home but in the end it was very worth it as we got surprised by a very large group of transient orca just minutes from our dock in Anacortes. After reviewing my pictures I identified the large group at the T36A's, T36B's, T37, T49C (the big male) and T124's. …. ~Capt. Matt”

the humpback whale - it was really something to hear the 

sound of the blow when it breathed

much of the time it looked like a HUGE log

Click here for an article and video of a humpback whale

This rock was full of harbor seals. Some people saw porpoise. 

They were quick; we didn't see them. 

Members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association exchange information about what's been sighted and where. After watching the humpback whale for a while, we got word of orcas in Canadian waters - and away we went. 

We knew we were getting close when we saw lots of other boats

You're probably wondering about noise and crowding the whales

There are MANY rules about the kind of boats you can have, how much noise they can make, how close you can get to the animals, and so forth. From what we were told, there's a lot of self policing by the tour operators. If you violate the rules, not only are you apt to get a hefty fine, you are also cut out of the Pacific Whale Watch Association and lose access to real time information about what's been sighted where. 

None of the whales "mugged" our boat - that's the term used when the whales come so close that you can't move your boat. You have to stay still in the water until the whales decide to move on. The mammals were close enough for us to see them pretty well even without binoculars. 

beautiful - even without whales in sight

Naturalist Katie gets off the boat when we return to Orcas Island. 

We changed boats and continued to Anacortes. 

Just before we reached the Anacortes dock we spotted more orcas. 

Captain Matt followed them and we watched for quite a while. 

Quite an experience.

Check out the website for the Pacific Whale Watch Association. There's much interesting information about the whales who live in the waters around the San Juan Islands year round and those that pass through. The map is also very interesting.

This was a grand adventure!