As June rolls closer and closer, the whale sightings have continued! We saw killer whales on 3 of our 4 tours this week. We also had a couple of firsts for the season this week, with our first Minke whale encounter, and our first breaching humpbacks of the season.
We had visits from the T124A, T036, T100, and T137 families of orcas this week. It was wonderful to welcome back the T137’s to the Salish Sea. These frequent flyers of our waters haven’t been around for awhile, so it was great to see them back and we hope they stick around for awhile!
Our most memorable encounter of the week was on Friday morning’s tour with two humpback whales named “Smiley” and “Split Fin.” We arrived on scene just north of Smith Island with these whales and got to see some lovely side by side surfacings, with Split Fin “fluking” on every dive. About 15 minutes into our encounter, everything changed when these two whales decided to take to the skies! We got to see both of these whales breach several times. Although the Pacific Northwest is known for Orcas, (and rightfully so), in my opinion, there is nothing more exciting to see than a breaching humpback whale, here in the pacific northwest. Watching an 80,000 pound animal propel itself out of the water is breathtaking!
