Whale & Wildlife Update

Hobbes is back with this week’s update and says Gray Whales Are Heading This Way…

Definitely a great start to the week — hearing our Southern Residents known as J pod on the Lime Kiln hydrophones on Monday. We think they were hanging around in the Straits of Juan De Fuca, but with the high winds and rough seas this week it was hard to tell. Transient orcas are still being seen, with the most recent sightings down in the Puget Sound and up in the Nanaimo BC area. I forgot to mention last week that maybe as many as 200+ Pacific White Sided Dolphins were reported by one of the BC Ferries, with about a dozen transient orcas chasing them. A mother and calf gray whales have also been seen this week. (See story below.) Sea lions, seals, porpoise, eagles and seabirds are being seen on almost every trip. Check out the SJIVB and the PWWA websites to see who’s running trips, and tell your guests and friends to come out and visit the real sea world! Cheers from the PWWA

Record Number of Gray Whales Heading This Way – Pacific Whale Watch Association Crews Report First Sightings in the Sound and Straits

The Great Migration of 22,000 Eastern North Pacific gray whales is well underway, and the first of these epic travelers are already showing up in the Sound and Straits of Washington and British Columbia. Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) crews are gearing up for an earlier-than-expected gray whale watch season. As spring approaches, these majestic creatures, which can reach 50 feet and 40 tons, begin a journey of between 5,000 and 6,800 miles from the warm-water calving lagoons in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula and Gulf of California to the Bering and Chukchi Seas of Alaska, traveling constantly at about five knots and averaging 75 miles per day. It’s the longest migration of any mammal on Earth. “This northern migration has been extraordinary,” explains Shari Tarantino, President of Seattle-based Orca Conservancy, who’s currently in northern California working with The Center for Whale Research and other research groups in tracking Southern Resident orcas off the coast. “We’ve seen record numbers of grays making their way north, and we’ve been documenting some spectacular and very unexpected behavior from them. Read more at http://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.org/media-news

Capt. Hobbes Buchanan
San Juan Island Whale & Wildlife Tours & Water Taxi Services
Marine Mammal & Wildlife Monitoring
PO Box 1345, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
www.sanjuanislandwhales.com
360-298-0012

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