Anacortes Extended Range
Highlights:
- 21 Bigg’s Killer Whales
- 6 Humpback Whales
- Tufted Puffins
- Horned Puffin!
- Steller Sea Lions
- California Sea Lions
- Harbor Seals
- Harbor Porpoise
- So many more birds!
Anacortes Whale Watch — 6:00AM
The early boat gets the whales, and boy were we on the water early this morning! You know you’re a true whale enthusiast when you willingly sign up for a 6:00AM departure. We rolled out of the marina as the sky was just beginning to lighten, fog rolling up Rosario Strait and over Cypress Island. We hugged the coastline, cruising close to the Burrows Island Lighthouse and then onward to Lawson Reef. We passed in and out of fog banks all the way into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. At this point, the skies started to clear and the sun broke through the cloud layer, making for a beautiful sunrise on the water. The peaks of the Olympic mountains were painted pink, every valley and ridge line clear to see.
Our first whale sighting of the day came at Constance Bank, where Sam spotted a humpback whale lunge feeding at the surface. In calm conditions, we watched as it worked a serpentine current line, lunging at bait and showing off its baleen and ventral pleats.
We continued on to Race Rocks, the fog clearing as we arrived. The bustle of this Ecological Preserve did not disappoint. Steller sea lions were brawling, California sea lions were barking, harbor seals were minding their own business and gulls were scattered amongst the bunch. In the words of Captain Shane, there were “acres of sea lions” present. It was such a treat, we went past twice, just to take it all in again.
Westward we continued, sticking close to the incredibly beautiful coastline of East Sooke. With the very low tide, courtesy of the full moon, we were treated to looks at a portion of the intertidal ecosystem we don’t often have the pleasure of seeing. Barnacles, muscles, limpets, chitin, sea stars and so many diverse species of algae. While we cruised the coastline, plumes of sea lion breath billowed as the pinnipeds surfaced amongst the glass-calm conditions.
All of a sudden, we were on scene with Bigg’s killer whales! The pod must have been down on a deep dive, because all at once guests all around the boat were yelling in excitement as black fins surface between us and shore. It turned out to be the T109Bs with T2B, a group of five! They were spread out and seemingly searching for prey. At one point they gathered back up and may have found breakfast, though we couldn’t be sure. Matriarch T109B, Sem, wowed us with a beautiful spyhop to end the encounter.
Not much farther west, guest naturalist Brooke found several humpback whales. Two, showed off their flukes, one was determined to be MMY0224 via Happywhale. Not long after we found another humpback, “Skeleton” CRC-19571! This individual’s tail was covered in barnacles scars, giving it a very Dalmatian vibe. We were nearly to Jordan River when we cut across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to search the Washington coast, angling back to the east. The stretch of coastline between Pillar Point and Port Angeles was stunning! Harbor porpoises were grouped up in small clusters all along the coast, harbor seals scattered amongst them and so many birds!
As we approached Cresent Beach, we crossed paths with another family of Bigg’s, the T109s! This group of five orcas hugged the shoreline, swimming through impressive bull kelp forests while flushing out prey. To say the setting was breathtaking really doesn’t do the encounter justice. All the while, we listened to the calls of loons nearby.
Back across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, near Constance Bank, we met up with a couple more humpbacks! One was revealed to be Salish Sea regular, “Scuttles”! Scuttles wowed us with some dramatic flourishes of the flukes, then we cut back into US waters, aiming for Dungeness Spit.
We’d heard of whales in this area, though no boats were on scene. Thanks to sharp-eyes guest Trevor, a fellow whale watching captain, we found the T109As (minus T109A2s) aiming east along the spit! If you’ve been keeping track up until this point, yes, we did encounter nearly the entire T109 family tree today, whales we rarely see at Island Adventure! It was wild. Truly wild. What are the odds? We traveled with them around the spit, and they led us into the bay. After some truly magical lineups with the Dungeness Spit lighthouse, they took us by surprise when they surface from a deeper dive alongside us. The water was so calm and clear, that we could track their eye patches beneath the surface before they came up for breath. WOW!
We knew it couldn’t get better from there, so we waved goodbye and headed for Smith Bank. When we’d first traveled through the eastern Juan de Fuca in the morning, it was choppy and foggy. This late in the afternoon, the water had smoothed out with the flood tide and the winds had died down, making for excellent puffin spotting conditions! Not only did we get incredible looks at multiple groups of tufted puffins, we also found the elusive horned puffin!!!
A brief tangent for mention of the other birding highlights of the day:
- So many red-necked phalaropes
- Red-necked grebes near Dungeness Spit!
- Common murre dad’s and young
- Rhinoceros auklets, mature and immature
- Nesting double creates cormorants at Bird Rocks
- Nesting Pelagic cormorants in channel markers
- So many gulls!
- Black oyster catchers at Bird Rocks
- Listening to common loon!
- Great blue herons perched on bull kelp
- Probably more that we’re forgetting…
There’s no such thing as too many whale encounters, so after a stop for birds at Smith, we continued north to Lopez Island where we met up with a fourth(!) group of Bigg’s killer whales. It was the T69 pod, a family of four, and they appeared to have just made a kill in the current lines off Colville Island. T69C was the first mature male we’d encountered today, and his towering dorsal fin certainly impressed.
Nearing the twelve-hour mark, we entered Rosario Strait and made a final slowdown at Bird Rocks to visit with birds and seals (see above notes). Then continued north towards Peavine Pass, where we’d had word of yet another group of Bigg’s killer whales, but despite our best efforts they eluded us. Cruising the steep and rugged coastline of eastern Blakely Island was a beautiful end to a phenomenal day on the water.
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To wrap up today by the numbers:
We encountered 21 Bigg’s killer whales, six humpback whales, countless pinnipeds and birds all while covering 180 nautical miles in just over twelve hours. That is a true island adventure!
- Julliann, Sam, Serena, Shane & Tami
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