September 5, 2006

A thick fog bank awaited us this morning off the coast of San Juan Island. Though the whales eluded us, masked by the mist, we spent some time with some rolly polly Harbour seals and saw many species of marine birds. Once out of the fog, we were surrounded with the beauty of the west coast.

When we started out for our afternoon trip, J-Pod has been spotted traveling south from Vancouver. We crossed paths with the 25 whales in the Georgia Strait. When we first arrived on scene we were excited to see Mike (J26), a 15 year old male, was fishing with his mother and younger sibling. The other 22 whales were resting and continued to do so the whole time we were there. This behaviour always provides great photo opportunities as all the whales rise in unison to take a breath.

Our final voyage of the day was filled with post car moments of the previously seen J-Pod whales. Excellent displays of whale behaviour included dramatic breaching, inquisitive spy hops and some fast paced porpoising. We also had one member of J-Pod swim a half circle around the boat suggesting perhaps she was a curious as we were. The tour finished with some excellent shots of whales surfacing in unison around Turn Point, and an amazing sunset accompanied by a moonlight bridge across the Haro Strait.