San Juan Island sea kayak wildlife update for Tuesday June 8th:
Yesterday I paddled out on our whale sanctuary 5 hour sea kayak tour. We left under blue skies but stiff breezes, and had a gorgeous day on the water. We saw and heard bald eagles, harbor seals, cormorants, black oystercatchers and more! We were down by lime kiln when we received reports that L pod was coming up island from the south, so all our fingers were tightly crossed and we waited in hope, but then the next report said they'd turned away. A little disheartened we began our long paddle back north, and lo and behold, some whales surprised us along the way! We saw a few very large males, a few females and juveniles and even a breach! The whales were mostly pretty far off shore, but we got a few good looks at one of the large males that surfaced a little closer. Later we were able to identify those whales as a subgroup of L pod, L 12's and one of the large males as Mega (a truly fitting name). Along with my guests I had a few coworkers shadowing the trip to learn the route and have a fun day on the water-- they were super excited to see the whales too! Canyon took some photos and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
~Aileen