I headed out for Friday Harbor Tuesday the 28th with the Victoria Clipper and their naturalist, who graciously allowed me to shadow her for my practicum to finish my certification as a naturalist in the Salish Sea. It looked like it would be a dry day, and I dreaded cutting my teeth on a whale watch tour with no whales. The residents had headed out the Strait of Juan de Fuca earlier in the day and were out of our range to view them. So we made a plan to spend time watching Stellar Sea Lions on Whale Rocks at the south end of San Juan Island before looking for Minke whales along Salmon Bank and heading to a rookery to look at Bald Eagles. As we got closer to Whale Rocks with several big Sea Lions in view, the boat took off and raced right by the rocks with several passengers straining to view what they thought we were going to see. Turns out that the Captain had gotten word of a sighting of orcas around Constance Bank, a little west of Victoria. So the Victoria Clipper that doesn't go to Victoria ended up right around there anyway.
We pulled up to a group of orcas, at least one big male with a left leaning fin--tentatively identified as T030A. We saw at least 7 surface at once, though there may have been more. We observed the 200 yard rule, staying out of the whales' path as best we could. Yet, the whales delighted us several times by going down for 4-5 minute dives and coming up well closer than that to our boat.
Overall, it was a great day to cut my teeth on what it's like to educate on a whale watch tour.
