This past Saturday (Valentine's Day) marked the first official Whale Watching trip of the season. We departed from our home port of Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island Saturday. I drove the boat, and Kendall helped out on deck as the naturalist and first mate.
We had an excellent trip, with clear skies and calm seas. The temperature was quite cool, but everyone on board stayed warm.
While no Killer Whales were sited that day, we were able to get some close looks at Stellar Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, lots of ungulates (deer and wild sheep) on Speiden, and tons of eagles. We had some great views of a large group of Harbor Porpoise as well, close to 20 or more animals. These porpoise are some of the smallest in the world, and are quite shy. They often become the prey the Transient Killer Whales that frequently pass through the San Juan Islands. All our guests enjoyed the tour, and were looking forward to coming back out during our peak season to look for our Southern Resident Killer Whales.