Whale report

Island adventures, (the whale watching tour we took)posted this as their whale watching report for the date we went.  I thought I would share. Enjoy:)

 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Humpback and numerous minkes!

Today was a wonderful day on the water! We spent quality time with a humpback whale south of Constance Bank and multiple minkes throughout the day! We also saw some California sea lions and turkey vultures! A more detailed report to come...

Our day started out with a California sea lion hauled out on the Guemes Channel marker. We continued south down Rosario Strait where we saw a lot of harbor porpoise swimming in the currents. At the south end of Colville Island, we saw numerous harbor seals hauled out as well as a few black oystercatchers. We headed east out toward Hein Bank, where Captain Michael found us our first minke whale of the day! We found him the same time we got a call about a humpback out off of Constance Bank. We got a few great looks at the minke, but then we were off. As we were leaving Hein Bank, there was one California sea lion hauled out on the southern Hein Bank marker and another one in the water, trying to get up. He eventually made it, but only to fall off again... It was a little run to get to where the humpback was, but it was well worth it. As we got on scene, he was headed west (away from where we were) but he turned back towards us and eventually just made a big circle around the boat! He was maintaining a fairly rhythmic breathing sequence, about 5 or 6 shorter dives before he went down for his longer dive (about 6 minutes). We had some amazing looks and could even hear him exhale as he came to the surface. We were also treated to his fluke every time he went on a deep dive! Eventually, we had to head back home. Not before we found four more minke whales at Hein Bank! They were everywhere! It was wonderful, we even got a little smell of those stinky minkes! We did a nice little slow down through the south end of Lopez Island and found four turkey vultures soaring high above the island. We saw more porpoise on our way home and even found a couple more "crazy" wildlife sightings. We had a couple of those wild humans on jet skis, who really enjoyed playing in our wake! All in all, it was a fantastic day! Another doubleheader for the record book!