Saturday, July 26th
On the morning tour, we headed north of Bird Rocks in Rosario Strait where we encountered members of both J and K-pod travelling south in calm seas. It was another great encounter, highlighted by a wonderful visit with Slick (J16). She seemed almost as curious about us as we were about her. Just as we were about to leave the scene, we noticed an active group of whales off in the distance and were treated to a couple of spectacular breaches! What a magnificent way to end another great whale experience.
By the time of our afternoon trip, J-pod had turned around and headed north, so we visited with K-pod near the south end of San Juan Island. On this trip, we first encountered the whales offshore of Cattle Point Lighthouse on the southern tip of San Juan Island. We witnessed some spectacular breaches and watched as some of the K-pod whales poropoised north. A highlight of the trip was a wonderful visit with K20 (Spock) and her offspring K38 (Comet). We capped off our whale encounter by visiting with the mature male in K-pod K21 (Cappuccino). It was a lovely encounter.
The evening trip, always a staff favourite, did not disappoint. We encountered a group of K-pod whales just south of False Bay on San Juan Island. A young sprouter male, K25 (Lobo) demonstrated some amazing foraging behaviours. It was a spectacular experience as we watched some amazing surface hunting behaviour. Lobo was joined in the foraging by another young whale who dazzled us with some amazing aerial chase behaviours. It was another wonderful evening on the Salish Sea.
