07-05-22
Anacortes Location
AM
Our morning trip began under beautiful blue skies and calm waters. We cruised through the inner islands on our search. We slowed down along Spieden Island where were spotted some fallow deer lying down on the hillside. There were also turkey cultures soaring above the island. We also found a few mature bald eagles perched up in the trees. We crossed the Canadian border and came across some killer whales! It was the T34s, T37s, T37A1, T65A5, and T72! They were swimming grouped up, just travelling along. Then, they decided to spread out and engage in some hunting behavior! We saw some half breaches, some tail lobs, and some splashing. They were enjoying their meal when they decided to start swimming our direction! Captain Matt backed out of their path and we watched as they cruised by our boat and toward the shoreline of Moresby Island. It was incredible! At that point, we turned to head back toward home port. We enjoyed our inner island trip back to Skyline.
PM
A high cloud layer started coming in as we departed on our afternoon trip. We went south out of Burrows Bay, in through Deception Pass. We slowed down along Seal Rock where we saw over 100 harbor seals hauled out and a mates pair of bald whales perched high on the rock. We began scouring the north side of Camano Island for a reported baleen whale. We worked together with another whale watching boat to try to locate the shore based report. Our buddies found the whale super close along the shoreline. We made our way in that direction. Both boats searched and searched but couldn’t relocate the whale, not yet. Our whale friend was hugging the shoreline so tightly and breathing without a forceful exhalation, we finally got the humpback whale dialed in! He was in about 20-30 feet of water in Utsalady Bay! Then, without warning, he decided to start lunge feeding at the surface! It was incredible to see the whale so close to shore feeding. We had many great looks as he cruised back and forth along the shoreline. We were able to get an ID on the whale by its dorsal fin, it is BCX1210’s 2021 calf, “Malachite!” So, our little whale friend was almost 18 months old! His mom brought him through the Salish Sea on his first northward migration in 2021, so it was very special to see him again this year! Our time grew short with our humpback friend and we had to head back toward home port. We ventured under Deception Pass bridge again and enjoyed the start to a beautiful sunset.
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